An Interview with BRIAN KONRADT,
author of Freelance Poker Writing:
How to Make Money Writing for the Gaming Industry

Q: Tell us about your book.

BRIAN: Freelance Poker Writing is the first book showing freelance writers how to make money writing for the gaming industry.

Q: So it’s not just writing about poker?

BRIAN: No, it’s writing for the gaming industry in general. This includes all types of casino-style games. I focus more on poker in my book because it is the most popular game and writers make more money covering poker and the influences of poker.

Q: Tell us about your writing career.

BRIAN: I’ve been a professional freelance writer since 1992. I’ve written for many publications and companies in several industries. I am mainly skilled as a copywriter, since most of my clients were corporations and ad agencies who hired me to write their marketing materials. I’ve been reporting on new trends in freelance writing since 1998. I don’t do much freelance writing for clients anymore because in the last ten years I have branched out into other areas. You can read about my writing career at my website, www.BusyEntrepreneur.com.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for your book?

BRIAN: I became addicted to Texas Hold’em when The Travel Channel began airing poker tournaments on TV. I then started playing poker for fun and became even more addicted. My poker addiction led me to research more about poker and the gaming industry. During my research I met freelance writers who were making money in this growth industry. I was interested in how they broke in and what it was like freelancing in this industry. I wanted to tell their story. This is what gave me the idea for my book.

Q: What was the writing process like?

BRIAN: It took me close to seven months to complete my book. I spent a lot of time researching the industry and interviewing writers and poker players. Because I run my own business during the day, I wrote this book in my free time.

Q: What obstacles did you face when writing your book?

BRIAN: Getting some of the information and facts correct was difficult, especially writing about the gaming laws. Interpretations of some of the gaming laws conflict with one another and don’t make sense entirely, depending on who is interpreting the law.

Q: Who designed your book cover and website at FreelancePokerWriting.com?

BRIAN: I did. I love graphic design as much as I love writing. The two skills go hand-in-hand with me. I learned a long time ago if you offer both services to corporate clients – writing and graphic design – you can make a lot more money. The skills I had developed from my freelance career made writing and designing my book a lot easier. I also have two negative traits that work in my favor: I am a control freak and I have a (less than) zero attention span. I enjoy controlling all aspects of a project (writing, editing, designing, publishing, and marketing) as well as juggling several other projects throughout the day. I get bored very easily, so staying busy creatively is my cure.

Q: Can you make a living writing for poker magazines?

BRIAN: You can make some money, but don’t quit your day job just yet. Poker magazines (the ones on the newsstand) don’t pay high rates. Average rates are between .10 and .15 cents per word. Established freelance poker writers earn between .35 and .65 cents per word. Unless you are a writer with many clips and lots of experience, it is very competitive writing strictly for poker magazines. Poker trade magazines, on the other hand, do pay more and are less competitive, but this requires you to know the business sides of gaming.

Many writers look outside the scope of poker magazines to other magazines that cover topics related to poker and gaming; these include magazines on women’s issues, men’s issues, lifestyle, sports, betting, gaming, technology, travel, entertainment, law and so on. Many writers do make a living writing for these magazines. Pay rates are much higher, up to $1 per word and sometimes more.

Q: What other writing gigs exist for poker and gaming writers?

BRIAN: Tournament coverage, such as WSOP and WPT; SEO writing (writing search engine optimization copy) for businesses and affiliates; copywriting (writing for casinos, ad agencies, and gaming companies); ghostwriting books and ebooks; and, of course, magazine writing (which includes writing for newspapers, special publications, websites, and blogs).

Q: Which pays the most?

BRIAN: That depends. Covering a big tournament can make you plenty of money because you can generate many articles and news pieces with exclusive content and interviews. Plus, networking at tournaments is priceless. You can almost guarantee yourself you’ll walk away with more writing gigs. However, covering a large tournament requires a lot of time – or, should I say, a lot of non-billable time.

Many writers find that SEO writing pays well. A client will ask a writer to write 20 articles at 300 words each on a topic (using certain keywords) for $10 per article. A skilled SEO writer can whip out these articles in less than three hours. That’s $66 an hour. Many SEO writing gigs are not for me because I write slowly and I prefer writing articles that entertain and educate readers.

Freelance copywriting in the gaming industry pays well. The average hourly rate is between $25 and $45 per hour with three or more years of related experience. Many freelance copywriters secure copywriting gigs from ad agencies in this industry.

The most popular writing gig, I would have to say, is freelance writing for poker-related publications, both offline and online. Poker and gaming cover so many topics, and many writers sell their articles to a variety of media outlets.

Q: How do writers break into this industry?

BRIAN: I answer this question extensively in my book, so I will be brief. Some writers start their own blogs. Other writers pitch an article idea to an editor. Yes, that’s it. No real big secret. Of course, you have to know your stuff. You can’t fake it till you make it in this industry.

Q: What is the most effective marketing strategy to publicize your writing services?

BRIAN: Online and offline social networking is the least costly and produces the best results to build a loyal readership and to build relationships with prospective clients. Online and offline social networking includes blogging; networking and schmoozing at poker events and tournaments; participating in discussion forums at poker websites and writing-related websites; joining a writer’s association to network with other members; creating a personality profile at MySpace.com; posting informative articles at AssociatedContent.com to generate free publicity for your services; and so on. There are so many variations of social networking these days, I can’t list everything.

Q: What makes your book unique or what adds value?

BRIAN: That’s easy – the entire premise of the book is unique. I feel what adds value is the interviews with freelance writers and poker players. Many of them are at the peak of their careers. They exemplify success in every imaginable way. I was very fortunate to pick their minds. All of the writers and poker players I interviewed were eager to share their experiences so they could help other writers to succeed.

Q: What’s next for you?

BRIAN: I am currently under contract to ghostwrite two books, one on small business funding, and the other on Internet marketing strategies. This should keep me extra busy for a while.

Thank you for your time.

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It was the first time I overheard someone whisper “she’s the author”, as I walked into a book signing, that I suddenly realized that I had achieved something very special. Not only had I managed to get my book published, I now received respect and admiration from total strangers. Being an author even it today’s digitized world, is still an awe-inspiring accomplishment.

In 2005 USA TODAY reported eighty-two percent of Americans say they plan to write a book someday. I think the critical word here is ‘plan’. If you want to be someone who really does write a book, you can begin right now by understanding how being an author will improve your life.

Here is my top ten list why you should become an author today, especially if you are a spirituality, self help or personal growth expert:

Authors are recognized as experts by virtue of having a book with their name on the cover
The media loves authors (i.e. experts) and uses them often, on all levels
Being an author improves your chances of getting paid speaking engagements
While you may not become a millionaire from writing a book, you can certainly improve your chances of increasing your income
When you go to your high school reunion, you can finally shove your book under the noses of all who snubbed you in your teenage years
If you ever felt that you weren’t ’smart enough’, writing a book will certainly go a long way in curing that.
Being an author gives you a stronger sense of self-esteem
Your book will open doors and create business opportunities you wouldn’t have received without it
Having a book gives you a platform for teaching workshops and seminars
Being an author is a great icebreaker at cocktail parties. (Hint: authors are often considered VIPs or celebrities! It’s true!)

When I started writing my first book, it wasn’t because I was sure I wanted Bill O’Reilly’s producer to have my name in his Rolodex to call whenever he needed a ‘mystical’ New Age expert. (In fact I’m not sure I’ve ever wanted that at all!) I didn’t devote hundreds of hours to stories of couples finding one another through magical, mystical ways just to impress strangers at a cocktail party. And I can definitely tell you I didn’t write six books just to tell my old high school classmates about it.

I wrote because I had to. I had a story inside of me that wouldn’t rest until I put it onto the page. The benefits of actually finishing the book and becoming a bona fide author and the other “reasons” were simply an afterthought.

I can do everything short of putting a cattle prod under you to get you started on writing your self help book, but, at the end of the day, writing has to be something you want to do. Sure, it’s hard to sit down day after day and stare at a blank computer screen. I know how hard it is to tell your mom or your husband that you only typed two pages in an entire day. I can tell you hundreds of great things about being an author, but not a single one will really get you to the finish line.

What will get you down the home stretch is the satisfaction of knowing that you’re being true to yourself. You dreamt of becoming an author because you had to. You envisioned title ideas and chapter outlines because they came to you and wouldn’t go away. You told your friends you wanted to write a book because you could and you will.

You are an author, and you always have been. All you need to do now is make it happen. It might not be scintillating cocktail banter that puts a finished manuscript in your hands, but keeping your eyes on the prize can’t hurt.

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The Internet and the information revolution continues to grow by leaps and bounds. There are many ways that you can participate. Recent developments now make it easy to make money writing online. There is a shortage of content writers; more are needed, no experience required.

If you are a native English-speaker or are first-language fluent in English, and can write simple, clear, understandable test at a 6th-9th grade (school) level, then you can make money writing online…

On the Internet, almost everything is communicated in written form. Someone had to write every page of every website on the World Wide Web. The explosion of Internet activity and the number of new websites has created an opportunity for almost anyone to make money writing online, creating the content the Net requires.

In Internet terminology “content” is anything of possible interest that fills up web pages. Content can e pictures, drawings, artwork, graphs or text. Text content consists of written words, which requires writers to generate.
By “writers” they mean people who can produce simple, understandable, unique text in conversational form.

Making money writing online does NOT require experienced writer/authors with literary credentials! It only requires first-language fluency in English and the ability to write at a 6th to 9th grade in school level in normal everyday English. (As a point of reference the Reader’s Digest is written at the 6th to 8th grade level of comprehension.)

The first-language fluency requirement means that this work cannot be outsourced to China or India! The text must be clear and easily understood, thus only native speakers of English can make money writing online generating unique content.

Writers are requires because to count, website content must be unique, different, not published elsewhere. The Internet is based on computer technology. Computer-based “spider” robots crawl the Web making copies and measurements. Any text can be compared to millions of pages, finding all duplicates in seconds.

People go to search engines to find things on the Net. If a website’s content is found to be a duplicate, it is deemed to be unimportant by the search engines and won’t show up on Google, Yahoo, etc. searches. To be counted as possibly important, their content absolutely must be unique, not published anywhere else on the Net.

Only people, communicating as writers, expressing themselves in their own words, can generate intelligible unique text. If you can express yourself in conversation, you can do the same in written form. If you can express yourself in written form at a 6-9th grade level, you can make money writing online.

The Internet is a free market for writers of unique content, with many buyer-users and producer-sellers and no one big enough to control any part of the market. The challenge is to get buyer-employers and seller-writers together. How do writers get started doing their thing and making money writing online?

You could do like everyone else and start with the search engines… Got a question? Go online and “Google it”!

Or you could follow the links below for more information on making money writing online…

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Blogging is a word you are probably familiar with. However you might not have heard of the phrase and niche blog.

Let’s analyze whether you need a niche blog of your own to make money online today.

I have seen one of the most successful Internet marketers today earn a seven figure income without a blog of their own. They do it with a small website of a few pages and a email marketing list of close to a million people.

Do you think you can build an email marketing list of a million people? It’s doubtful, but obviously it is possible!

Most of the best Internet marketers have a niche blog today that they utilize in numerous ways. One of the ways is to build their own email marketing list.

Another way is to create fresh content that becomes popular with the search engines. This content ultimately ends up on page 1 of search engines such as Google giving them free traffic for many years to come.

A niche blog is a great way to meet people on the Internet. Social networking has proven to be a great way to make money online and a niche blog can help you do that.

Targeting a tight niche is a key to having a successful blog that makes money. A niche is really nothing more than taking a broad theme and narrowing it down some.

Blogs are a great way to zero in on a specific niche. Let me give you an example.

Today the Internet marketing niche is extremely crowded. This is a broad term that can cover many numerous things.

A successful niche blog might be a way to earn money on the Internet as an email marketer. Email marketing is a tight niche in the larger theme of Internet marketing.

A person who would be successful with this type of blog would be somebody who really enjoys email marketing. They would consider themselves to be an expert on it and would want to pass on some of their knowledge to their blog readers.

Unless you are planning on making money on a short or term basis a niche blog really is the way to go. It allows you to build a long range income using the Internet in ways you could not do without one.

As you can tell in my opinion you should have a niche blog. This is probably why you see a new blog started almost every second somewhere in the world.

If you take a long term view of your blog, and target a specific niche, you can have a lot of fun and make a lot of money niche blogging.

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It’s a common knowledge that the best way to make money online is to drive quality traffic to your website or blog. You can do this by distributing quality, keyword-focused articles to several directories and articles submission sites.

Here’s how you can earn money with article marketing:

1. Go with interesting and lucrative topics. You can get more people to take a second look at your articles if you write about something that they will find interesting.

Write about your products and services and latest news about your chosen niche. You can also talk about the problems of your possible clients, their most frequent questions, or offer some ideas and techniques on how they can excel in their chosen careers.

2. Deliver only quality articles. Your copies will not help you convert your readers to potential clients if they are not of high quality.

Ensure that you can impress these people through your content by making it helpful, easy to understand, well-written, useful, and relevant to the lives of your readers.

3. Keep it short and simple. There is no need to write 1,000-word articles as you are serving people who are always in a hurry. Give these people the information they need ASAP by limiting your article word count to 500.

Also, ensure that you make your articles easy to understand by using simple terms as much as possible. No big, fancy words, jargons, and fillers.

4. Volume is the key. You can easily augment your online earnings if you can drive more traffic to your website. This can be achieved by boosting the number of your articles. Strive to produce at least 5-10 articles per day and submit them to all leading article submission sites and directories.

5. Use keywords. This is something that you cannot afford to ignore. It will be a lot easier for you to connect with your potential clients if you can make your articles highly visible online.

That can happen if you use keywords and relevant key phrases all throughout your content. Of course, you will need to follow the appropriate keyword density which is 3% of your total word count.

6. Use a killer resource box. Ensure that your resource box will help you move your readers to give your site a visit. Tell these people ahead of time what benefits or what kind of information awaits them. To increase your clickthrough rate, it would help if you can throw away freebies like short reports and ebooks.

This is 6 effective ways to use article marketing to make money. There are to many people using article marketing to promote their business internet for it not to be true. So what are you waiting for!

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