Writing scam of yore

Short paragraphs?

I can write those!

Sign me up!

Do I need to grow a mustache?

'Cause I've got the glasses.

How to Make Money Writing Short Paragraphs

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

pjcamp

Make big bucks in the fast paced world of J. Peterman! Fact Free! No tedious study! No tiresome exercises! No unpleasant bending! Wrestle poodles and win! Lope over walls! Tease people! Brush them aside as though they were matchsticks!

Oh, wait . . . I’ve wandered into Mr. Apollo.
- http://twitter.com/googoogjoob42 googoogjoob
  
  five years ago, i was a four-stone apology
  
  today, i am two separate short paragraphs
Antinous / Moderator

He looks like the guy who runs the gas station in one of those innumerable, interchangeable Bad Girls Die By The Train Tracks movies on MST.
http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan

Clearly there was better money in writing short paragraphs than there was in typesetting short paragraphs. *shudder*
justawriter

Apparently Mr. Barrett did have enough going for him to have a literary descendent …
http://ruthes-secretroses.com/Library/S/Story-Game.php
http://twitter.com/skrenta Rich Skrenta

You can make money writing short paragraphs on Amazon Mechanical Turk. “Write a 100+ world article about X.” The SEO industry will pay $1 or so per article.
ChickenDelicious

Cory’s got a pretty sweet ‘stache in that picture.
Donald Petersen

I just GoogleMapped 6216 N. Clark in Chicago, and yeah, that definitely looks like the place.
- Navin_Johnson
  
  “Fadil’s Salon” it looks like now, unless it was one of the apartments upstairs….
freshacconci

You have to admit, Benson Barrett is an excellent name.
Chuck

You can find that guy down at the local bar, complaining to no end about how Don “tiny little ads” Lapre stole his idea.
EH

“What’d you call me?”
http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch

I like to think when I anthropomorphize spammers that they look just like that schmucky guy: “Great post! Really, I loved it! Great informations!” Thanks, Benson.
- rabidpotatochip
  
  Great post! Really, I loved it! Great informations!
Teller

Ship movements. If you’re good, obits.
voiceinthedistance

It’s all right there in black and baby blue:

Facts.

Just, plain facts.
ill lich

Sure, you can make good money writing short paragraphs, but will it make you happy? The look on his face says “no.”
xenphilos

Ahem, I give you nega-Doctorow.
- tw1515tw
  
  Should be “How to make money writing DRM-free paragraphs”
invictus

Just look at Cory discovering the Vintage Ads LJ community. Just look at it!
nosehat

Ah the Demand Media of yore!
journey46

Education 101=
Education of any sort is rarely free in a money based world.
So why knock or spoof the Benson Barrett’s of the world ?
(unless the “sell” causes a worldwide financial meltdown)
Immature human beings need to have their immature brains fooled daily.
Should the Benson Barrett’s of the world suffer indignity or embarrassment in delivering their message of tough love ?
Who is or was the real Benson Barrett ?
Can the contributor do a search of this man and write a story about his life and this particular advert ?
That would be journalism, not pop journalism.
The contributor’s effort might even make a good movie like that Hanks/DiCapprio thingy.
Personally, if my parents had only let me order the Xray glasses or Playboy magazine when I was 10 I think my life may have been very different.
But probably not.
I still read Boing Boing everyday and expect journalistic originality.
So probably not.

Where are Bukowski and HST when ya need them ?
- RJ
  
  I still read Boing Boing everyday and expect journalistic originality.
  
  “Journalistic originality.”
  hic
jeligula

The mustache would not only increase your price per paragraph, Cory, but you would also get more per speaking engagement. Robert Jordan got nary a nickel for his writing until the advent of the ‘stache. After that, publishers couldn’t get enough of him. And I have evidence of the fact that had L. Ron Hubbard grew one, he would have retained his sanity. It’s up to you.
lucero

a Young John Wayne Gacy, before the name change and the advent of contact lenses
Paul Renault

No one’s noticed that the ad copy is ONE paragraph?

Couldn’t he have split it in two?
- Lobster
  
  Then he’d have to pay the guy twice as much.
Lobster

Derp.
dainel

This promised dream has actually been realized (many times over). Millions of untrained authors write short paragraphs (blogs), and they earn real money. No training needed. (Skip the editors part). Many small checks. Does not quite add up to worthwhile. Addwords, Amazon referals, etc, does not add up to much. But I would say that for (a lot more than) hundreds, they actually do earn a lot of money.
http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael

Classified ad-writers?

Craigslist-poster-manqué?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Walsh/100001992361976 Michael Walsh

I live near 6216 Clark Street in Chicago, and it is a three story building over a dry cleaners today. And to think that it was for a time the very center of the literary world! It would do even better today, since a Dunkin Donuts has been built next door.
http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

Let me guess. The short paragraphs that you write are along the lines of “Hundreds of untrained authors make money writing short paragraphs. Join them. No training needed….” You post that short paragraph in a newspaper and rake in money sent by suckers. You tell them to write the same ad in the newspaper….
jimh

Modern day Yelp reviews, and/or astroturf comments!
No tedious study!
Greekster

They have this today. It’s called The Examiner and CNN’s iReport. I can’t believe so few see the irony in this.
pjcamp

“Do I need to grow a mustache?”

No, but you might need a bigger banana.
artaxerxes

Facts FREE.

Is the copy-writer too old to campaign for the Rethug nomination? It seems he has many of the strengths required to be a beholden, sold-out, right-wing puppet in the White House.
Outtacontext

The similarity in looks is pretty amazing. No Photoshoping, Cory?