Recently I’ve been seeing adverts on LinkedIn for Fool looking for writers. Got me thinking... I wonder what Fool want in a writer?
I’m going to try and make this article interesting while still being objective.
Do Fool want writers who invest in shares themselves (professionally)? Do Fool want writers who have been part of the community for years and contribute on the discussion boards?
Instinctively I am not sure that these factors are too high up the list. I know that Maynard and pyad contributed on the message boards... but they don’t write for Fool any more, sadly.
Seems to me that Fool likes to stick with writers who have been on the site quite a while and who will produce nice articles regularly. But they don’t actively try and court the best writers who post on the message boards. As far I know, most current writers don’t post much on the discussion boards.
Quite a shame really in my view.
You may know that I wrote four articles for Fool. These were my first four articles ever a share writer. Looking back I think they were fairly good (a lot of writers seem to use the phrase ‘Supermarket Price War’ now) but obviously there was room for improvement. Sadly I wasn’t able to continue writing as these articles didn’t capture enough email addresses.
Personally I feel I might be a bit too outspoken for Fool, and there are other areas in which I can improve in share writing.
But anyway, I’m writing this partly because I’m actually curious in what Fool are looking for. They pay some of the best rates in the industry, so should be able to obtain the best writers. I still read the articles every day and it’d be interesting to see how the writing develops in future.
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Quick post here...
I was told I might get 'off the board help'... well I just have a few things to say. I don't know if this well lessen my 'chances of help' or reduce my chances of writing for Fool again but I always believe in speaking my mind.
I'm glad this thread got started. I've read all the replies with interest.
Plenty of people know that some of my articles on ShareProphets were written partly for DRAMATIC EFFECT. But they were pretty popular too- my articles just from December received over 10,000 unique views, just counting December viewings.
The one which made the BIG IMPACT is "Why Do Some Share Writers Constantly Praise Shares They Don’t Own? Shares are Real, not An Imaginary Game"
I don't know how many views that got yet... will know end of January. Guessing quite a lot though.
I've had a chance to reflect on that article for a while, and it wasn't made as an 'attack' on anyone. But I do find it... curious if a share writer will write a lot about a share saying how good it is... and not own it.
Of course you don't have to own shares in a company to write about it, but personally I am MORE INTERESTED in reading articles by people who own shares in a company. You can bet they have down A LOT OF RESEARCH on it... and are putting their HARD EARNT MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS.
On the subject of Fool 'adverts'... I really don't have a problem at all with them. All companies have to make money to survive. You look at FTSE 100 companies... all of them can be pretty ruthless when they want to be about making money. All UK Fool is doing to make money at the moment is offering people the chance to read a FREE article. If you don't like that fine, but it's pointless to complain about it.
I speak to a lot of people in the 'share game'... and one editor thinks that the amount Fool pays its writers is TOO HIGH... he said he would NEVER MAKE A PROFIT like that. I think it's clear to see many other sites have many more adverts than Fool- and I wouldn't have a problem with them using ads either really.
Anyway.. back to researching my shares... aka watching them go up :)!
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And on the 'success' part... the BIG GAINS can come from getting a share at a GREAT PRICE... then holding.
Years ago Fool was about this more with the pyad articles etc.
If you want to go WAY BACK The Motley Fool UK Investment Guide was ALL ABOUT THIS. That book got me started in shares is one of the main reasons I have a SIX FIGURE share portfolio now.
I am quite open with people that I am a LONG TERM BUY AND HOLD investor.
No share sales in over 8 years.
Some of my best buys including buying LGEN at less than 37p on 20 February 2009 and BT.A at less than 89p on 29 April 2009. Saying 'less than' because Halifax Sharebuilder have rounded prices up recently!
Buy and hold is easy and anyone can do this :)
Link to Fool Thread with Interesting Replies
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