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Columnists Wanted

 

NOTE: Right now (March 2008) we're pretty well fixed for columnists. However, if you have an idea, or want to take over one of the *** columns, let us know!

 

One of the original ideas behind The BUZZ was that we'd like to make just a little money from advertising, and turn around and spend it on content that benefits the expat community.

 

One way we'd like to do that is by having some weekly columns. Kind of like blogs, but with a little more oversight and discipline, and of course, a little bit of pay.

 

Right now we have NO income; anything we pay comes out of our pockets. So the pay we can offer will be...shall we say..."token."

 

We're thinking 450-550 words, once a week (four or five times a month) for 50rmb (payable monthly). Yes, that works out to about 1 jiao per word. Miserable!

 

BUT you get exposure. (With the only English guide to the Metro, and all the other things we're offering, we expect to generate a lot of traffic pretty quickly.) You build up a body of work (enforced discipline). And, sooner or later, we will start making money, and when we do, we'd like to take the fee up to about a thousand a month for the same amount of work. No promises as to when that will happen, though we hope it will be within a few months. Also, we will start buying a limited number of feature articles soon, and our columnists will get first choice of the topics.

 

So here are the column topics we have created so far. (TOPICS MARKED WITH AN ASTERISK HAVE ALREADY BEEN ASSIGNED.)

  • The Good Life*
  • History (sites)***
  • Shopping*
  • Films & Live Performances***
  • Chinese Culture*
  • Art*
  • Local artists' profiles*
  • Sports & Outdoor Activities
  • Chinese restaurants*
  • A photo-column*
  • Chinese language help***
  • "Shenzhen Shtick," a Shenzhen-based humorous photos column

A recap:

  • All that's available now is the Sports/Outdoor column.
  • However, James is writing all of the *** columns; he might give them up to interested parties
  • We are always acecpting submissions for Shenzhen Shtick; read this page for more about it

 

If you're interested in any of these, send us a note to shenzhenbuzz [at] gmail [dot] com Let us know what you've written before (new writers welcome), and send a sample or a blog address if you have one. Also, tell us your interest in, or experience with, the topic.

 

Join us!