About.com seeks sports journalists

From http://cubreporters.org/2008/11/website-seeks-paid-freelance-sports.html


About.com, a subsidiary of the New York Times Co., is seeking part-time writer-experts to produce and maintain sports guides for its website. You'll build and maintain a GuideSite, a topical section of About.com that contains articles, reviews, a blog, a discussion forum and a bio page about you. Along with a base payment of $725 a month, About.com pays based on page views. Some writers make up to $100,000 per year.

Writers are needed to specialize in the following topics:

* martial arts
* mountain biking
* sailing
* volleyball
* waterskiing / wakeboarding
* world soccer

Visit http://beaguide.about.com to learn more about About.com, see a full list of available topics, and to submit an application.

 

I've heard that the NY Times is looking to sell about.com.

 

Haha, and slam.

 

The setup and training and testing periods for these jobs are ridiculous. You better be great with computers if you want a chance.

 

I have experience working with About.com. The training and prep work can be incredibly time consuming, and it's not paid. It is also a slow process, it can take weeks for decisions to be made. The computer work isn't really too hard. Most of the templates are fairly self explanatory. There is some basic code, but it is about the same as what you would use for different commands on this site.

If you decide to charge on, all that work will become your site, and once it is up it is more about maintaining it than anything. Write a story or two a week and some blogs and it becomes some pretty easy extra cash with the potential to be much more. Don't be fooled, though, about the $100,000 a year earners. Those are few and they've been doing their sites for many, many years.

I'd say it's worth it if you make it through all the hoops. But the hoops do kind of suck.

 

I applied to do the volleyball. I've covered collegiate volleyball for a few years and I know a lot of big people (around the U.S. and Internationally) and didn't get the gig. I'm not sure who they are looking for.

 

I applied for volleyball two months ago and never heard, and you've flown in higher air than I have. Does it smell like scam to you, too?

 

I don't know if it's a scam, but it's weird. To be honest I wouldn't want to work there anymore after what Roscablo said.

 

I guarantee it's not a scam. But this again shows how slow they are in responding. For all you know, if you still haven't heard, you may still be in the running. They say it takes up to eight weeks to get back to applicants. Who knows what their criteria on certain subjects is. I know they prefer journalists, they don't have to babysit much that way, so I am surprised you two didn't get more of a look. Also, it may have already gone into the training process. They don't take down an open site until they've filled it. If whoever is in the training session doesn't pan out, then they start over. See, more hoops.

I don't think it is bad to apply to work for About.com, it's a profile website with tons of traffic and I do think it pays off well if you get hired. You also have nearly 100 percent freedom to write what and when you want. But I still am not going to sugar coat all the hoops you have to jump through to get to that point. Mostly, be patient if you decide to apply and definitely don't get your hopes up.