You wake up in the morning, and check Hackaday over breakfast. Then it’s off to work or school, where you’ve already had to explain the Jolly Wrencher to your shoulder-surfing colleagues. And then to a hackspace or back to your home lab, stopping by the skull-and-cross-wrenches while commuting, naturally. You don’t bleed red, but rather #F3BF10. It’s time we talked.
The Hackaday writing crew goes to great lengths to cover all that is interesting to engineers and enthusiasts. We find ourselves stretched a bit thin and it’s time to ask for help. Want to lend a hand while making some extra dough to plow back into your projects? We’re looking for contributors to write a few articles per week and keep the Hackaday flame burning.
Contributors are hired as private contractors and paid for each article. You should have the technical expertise to understand the projects you write about, and a passion for the wide range of topics we feature. You’ll have access to the Hackaday Tips Line, and we count on your judgement to help us find the juicy nuggets that you’d want to share with your hacker friends.
If you’re interested, please email our jobs line (jobs at hackaday dot com) and include:
- One example post written in the voice of Hackaday. Include a banner image, at least 150 words, the link to the project, and any in-links to related and relevant Hackaday features. We need to know that you can write.
- Details about your background (education, employment, interests) that make you a valuable addition to the team. What do you like, and what do you do?
- Links to your blog/project posts/etc. that have been published on the Internet, if any.
What are you waiting for? Ladies and Gentlemen, start your applications!
Have you ever considered using “freelance” contributors? No money involved but no obligations too…. “Freelancers” could use the tipline itself to send the articles.
Freelance does not mean they work for free. It means they are free to work for whoever pays the best or offers the terms they want to work for.
Truth to be said though, I wasn’t able to find a better suited word to express what I meant since English is not my native language. nevertheless you got the idea!
Plus, if makers are dumping free articles into the tip line, you need paid staff to read all of them and select for quality. Boring work for people that are qualified to write the articles themselves.
Doing something like that waters down the market for people who actually want to make a living with this just because some people can afford to do this in their free time. You really shouldn’t do that on a website that can afford to pay their writers.
Can you take part/win a prize in the Hackaday Prize if you’re hired on as a writer?
If you’re interested you should send in an application and we’ll tackle that issue when we get to it. Looking forward to reading your submission ;-)
That usually means “no”
I mean, C’mon – think about it. That’s like asking the police “Is my potato cannon legal?” – they’ll say “Why don’t you come and show us?”
Or it could mean, “hey if your idea is good enough to win, but you can’t now because you’re an employee, it might end up being developed into a commercial product by supply frame and you spend your days writing articles about how good it is, while getting royalties.”
Sent in my application. What’s the timeline on hearing back? Hopefully all the positions haven’t been filled as yet.
Thanks! Sent in my application. What’s the timeline on hearing back? Hopefully all the positions haven’t been filled as yet.
What does a job like this pay? Flat rate or per submission? What metrics determine the amount of compensation?
Don’t bother asking, they never say publicly.
That’s true, but WGA East And the Fast Company Union just negotiated a (very good) contract. High points include:
Now, on top of this — if you live in California — you have the ‘uber/lyft independent contractor case’ that’s working its way through the courts. If that succeeds (and it probably will), you’re probably looking at a situation where freelance writers for a publication suddenly move from 1099 to W-2. That’s *huge*.
So there’s some really, really interesting stuff going on and it’s all thanks to labor unions.
Well I’ve learned something, labor unions in the US are worth having, unlike labour unions in the UK.
I thought the unions hate Uber and Lyft. Whooda thought?
Not to put too fine a point on this, but this does NOT answer the question.
…situation where freelance writers for a publication suddenly move from 1099 to unemployed.
Ftfy
But this is the thing with any job.
You dont waste your time applying for ones that dont advertise the salary as it typically means the salary isn’t very good else they would advertise it. – especially for contracting !!
It seems very much an appeal towards a lifestyle / hobby writing opportunity rather then a career.
But again, how valuable is one’s time?
Be a shame to waste time applying to find out they only pay $0.01 per word, but then that would explain some of the articles :)
Yes, I’ve noticed people tend to use too many unnecessary words, especially adverbs. Often words such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ and even ‘I’ could also be removed, like with some languages other than English.
Time machine. Hackaday is a Time Machine!
Back in the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s, all pulp magazines–detective stories, sci-fi, Popular-Mechanics-types–were notorious, and legendary, for paying “…a penny a word…”.
This remuneration rate continued as long as dead-tree magazines existed; I still remember my checks from Electronics World, Popular Electronics, et. al.–for what they (and I, of course) considered very good articles–was for far less.
Don’t give up your day job…
“We’re looking for contributors to write a few articles per week and keep the Hackaday flame burning.
Contributors are hired as private contractors and paid for each article. ”
Writing for Hackaday is only a full-time job for a few of us. Most contributors write a few articles per week and hold other jobs.
Are there particular subject areas that HaD is hoping to add to its repertoire, or just more of the same stuff that’s there now?
For example, HaD is pretty weak on costuming-related things compared to Adafruit’s blog, and short of pointers to manufacturer App Notes compared to Dangerous Prototypes. OTOH, Adafruit’s blog has gotten so voluminous that I’m hardly ever motivated to read it any more :-(
I’m sure Mike could expand on this, but if it’s interesting to our community, i.e. the type of stuff you’d find in a typical hackerspace, it’s fair game. I’ve written about textiles, for instance.
Would the author have to use his / her real name?
Probably with the taxman, yes. :)
As long as you have a TIN/EIN from the IRS and I think on file in the domicile/venue of the operation as an assumed name I’m guessing for the State taxes… even if rolling through the real person without a District Court or higher court Ordered reality with a new SS#… then you can use whatever is on file as long as you’re at most avoiding taxes and not evading. Keep it legal with some cushion and I’m confident you can make profitable the situation with whatever comes at ya. If government comes at you too aggressively and unlawfully… you can learn their job and take that from them eventually also… even though you probably won’t want it.
We all use our real names as writers.
“You should have the technical expertise to understand the projects you write about”
Damn! I barely have the technical expertise to understand the projects I actually make, other peoples sfuff would probably be a mystery.
I read that your overqualified and need click bait lessons. *snicker
“Damn! I barely have the technical expertise to understand the projects I actually make…”
Don’t underestimate the value of knowing that you don’t know, or the ability to learn it when you encounter it.
Perfect timing!
I don’t mean to be captain obvious but hey, since I don’t see it here elsewhere…
https://hackaday.com/2019/06/07/maker-media-ceases-operations/
Surely you can find all the experienced maker/writers there you could need and they will come ready with their own fanbase.
Sent in my application. Fingers-crossed.