TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Internet Research From:Kat Nagel <katnagel -at- EZNET -dot- NET> Date:Sun, 18 Oct 1998 11:25:21 -0400
" Does anyone here do Internet Research as a business? I know that
there are
" many people who do this professionally - do any of you?
"
" Bob Maxey
It's a minor part of my business. I had great hopes, but
people just don't want to pay for something they think
anyone can do. The only people I know who are making a
decent living as information brokers are a couple of
people with MBAs + MLSs and fluency in several languages
(European languages for one, Asian and Mideast languages
for the other). They specialize in competitive marketing
intelligence for particular industries, and had years
of experience in corporate intelligence-gathering
departments before starting off as independents. In
both cases, their former employers are their major clients.
They now include web searches as part of their services,
but the major part of the really useful stuff, they say,
still comes from subscription sources (Dialog, Nexus, etc.).
"The transformation of calories into words, of words into money,
and of money into calories again are the three cycles in a
freelance writer's metabolism." /Mary Kittredge, _Poison Pen_