Hello from England

hairyoctopus · Post by **hairyoctopus** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:28 am

Hi, my name's Steve Humphreys. I'm married with 5 teenage children (yes, five) and I live in Hampshire, UK. I've always enjoyed writing but until recently I've thought of it as a "maybe one day" activity. Unfortunately I'm increasingly unhappy in my current job so I've decided to see if I can make enough money writing in the evenings and at weekends to be able to change career.

I've been using Helium and Triond to try and build up a portfolio to show publishers, but Constant Content sounds like a much better way of doing things. I've submitted three articles (for usage rights only) that I'd previously published on another site, and now I'm pacing up and down waiting for them to be approved.

Feeling really good about this - I know everyone has to start small, but this feels like the new kind of direction I need.

HayleyWriter · Post by **HayleyWriter** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:54 am

Hi Steve,
Welcome to CC! It is the best site on the web for writers. Consider writing articles especially for CC, so you can offer full rights as many customers pay even more for those articles. You can definitely make money here. I have been working here evenings and weekends for quite a while now and am almost making enough to change careers... if I could just talk my husband into it.

Anyway, best of luck here. Do check the submission guidelines thoroughly though, because they are different from Helium and other sites.

Kind regards,

Hayley

P.S. What is the story behind the hairy octopus?

JackieL · Post by **JackieL** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:33 am

Hi Steve,

Welcome to CC! Lordy, lordy, living with five teenagers? I would bet you could probably write some great parenting articles.

You made a good choice in deciding on CC, and I am not saying that just for the income potential. There is a really good sense of community here. I have not been with CC for very long and up until now most of what I have been doing on the forum is simply reading and learning. Admittedly, that has not stopped me from making a few mistakes, mostly regarding submission requirements (so listen to HaleyWriter and check them out carefully), but being here has given me lots of motivation and encouragement.

I wish you great success with CC, here's to better writing and the many dollars that can come from it!

Have a great day!
Jackie

jak · Post by **jak** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 4:55 am

Hi Steve - we could almost be neighbours. I'm on the west side of Poole. Best of luck at CC.

eek · Post by **eek** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:57 am

Welcome, Steve. Great username! All the best with those initial submissions.
Emma

hairyoctopus · Post by **hairyoctopus** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 8:19 am

Thanks for all the greetings and good wishes. I'll do my best to commit the submission guidelines to memory

HayleyWriter wrote:P.S. What is the story behind the hairy octopus?

Back in 2004 I went on a trip to Uganda with some of our church youth group. We spent a long, long time sitting in a hot minibus playing "My mother went to the shop" (not sure anyone outside the UK will understand that), getting more and more tired and silly. "Hairy octopus" was my contribution for something beginning with "H"; when I got back to England I decided to use it as a joke email address to keep in touch with people we'd met on the trip. Since then I've tended to use it as a name on forums, mainly because I never get messages saying that that username is already taken!

Celeste Stewart · Post by **Celeste Stewart** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 8:43 am

Welcome!

Debbi · Post by **Debbi** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 8:54 am

HO,

Welcome to CC!

Here in the US we have a similar alphabet game where we say "Yesterday I went to the zoo and I saw an "albatross" "baboon", etc. That's such a great game to play in the car on road trips. I played it with my sister when I was young and then introduced it to my kids and grandkids. I'm sure there are many variations on that game here.

Debbi

hairyoctopus · Post by **hairyoctopus** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:17 am

Just had two emails in quick succession to say that two of my first three articles have been accepted (still waiting to hear about the third).

So relieved!

hairyoctopus · Post by **hairyoctopus** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:22 am

Update: the third piece was rejected as I'd quoted some statistics without quoting a source. Duh!

HayleyWriter · Post by **HayleyWriter** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 4:11 pm

Hi Steve,

Congratulations on the accepted articles. As you can from the one rejection, Ed is fair about the rejections and does provide good reasons. I am sure you will be a success here on this site. Now... just wait for your first sale!

Kind regards,

Hayley

ltweedie · Post by **ltweedie** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 1:41 pm

Well done Steve.
I'm impressed with the three articles at once. I am stuck on number 3 ... maybe I should scrap it for the moment and start on number four!
Good luck with that first sale!

Lisa

Constant Content

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