Baller

My all-time most popular Forbes post just topped 500,000 views.

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How much can you make?

Stripper, Las Vegas, Nevada

"3) How much can a contributor make? As I’ve written, a writer who attracts 1 million unique visitors a month for 12 consecutive months, with a solid base of repeat visitors, can earn a six-figure annual income. That’s not easy to accomplish. In 2012, only the second year of our model, two contributors topped $100,000. We had a few at $75,000 and $50,000, and 25 hit the $35,000 mark. There is a long tail at $10,000. Using their individual data dashboard, a contributor can track how they’re doing in real time. For comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the average full-time reporter or correspondent’s salary at $45,270. Remember, being a contributor (many have worked for major national and regional news brands) is a freelance job, with considerable freedom to publish content for others." -- "Inside Forbes: Amid the Finger Pointing, Journalists Need to Explore New Payment Models"

Take my advice

Over on my Forbes blog this week, I'm doling out advice. Got a question? Want my advice? Prefer to be anonymous? Email me.

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Scenes from my life as a freelancer

Mannequin, Chicago, Illinois
I finished up my "How to Get a Freelance Job in 5 Days" series on Forbes with this post:

You think reading advice is the same thing as taking action on advice that has been given.

You think being inspired by watching a TED talk is the same thing as being inspired by creating something no one has ever seen before.

You think writing Facebook status updates for $100 an hour is impressive.

It isn’t.

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Five days

   American Apparel, Chicago, Illinois
I'm doing a five-part series on my Forbes blog this week about how to get a freelance job in five days. Join me, won't you?

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Sausage

Doll, Las Vegas, Nevada

In a 2011 Forbes article entitled “Women Write Differently Than Men (Duh),” Susannah Breslin writes that she was simultaneously more compassionate and more ruthless when she wrote about the pornography business, because she could identify with women in a way that men could not. “The fantasy and the sex didn’t interest me,” she recalls. “I was looking for the ordinary in the extraordinary, the mundane in the hardcore, the human beings in the sausage factory.”-- The Walrus

Do that thing

Pink Pants, Las Vegas, Nevada
Want to know how to be a better journalist? Let me explain. It involves a gigolo.

At this point, I don’t really have any big hangups as a journalist. For example, at one point, I was at the convention, and I was looking for this gigolo. I’d seen him on a panel. He sat at the front of the room with another guy, and the theme of the panel was, “A bunch of people have crossed over from adult to mainstream, but what about people who have crossed over from mainstream to adult?” These guys were supposed to be examples of that. The gigolo is the star of a Showtime show called “Gigolos,” and the other guy was a rock star who ended up on “Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew” and then made a celebrity sex tape because “that’s what you do.”

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Porn star dreams

I've got my final post on my porn trip to Vegas on my Forbes blog.

I’m sitting in the nosebleed seats at the porn awards.

To my right, an older man — maybe 60, or 70 — is reading the evening’s program with a small yellow flashlight.

To my left, a young Asian woman is studying her program as if cramming for a final.

“WE CAN’T HEAR YOU!” a man behind us screams.

On the stage, a woman whose breasts risk overflowing the neckline of her sparkling dress is at the microphone, but there is a technical difficulty, and we can’t hear what she’s saying.

It doesn’t really matter. This is porn.

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Porn stars speak

“I’m real. I bring myself. I don’t pretend to be something I’m not.”

I've got another post up on my Forbes blog featuring more from the epicenter of porn in Vegas. I photographed people who work in adult and asked them about business. Above, Bonnie Rotten.

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This is porn

My first post on the adult convention and awards in Vegas is online at Forbes:

“Porn’s totally gone down the toilet,” Lane reports. So, he’s moonlighting in real estate. “I’m doing my part to save the economy by getting short sales off the market and making fine, quality porno,” he enthuses. “I want to be the Warren Buffett of porno.”

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Vegas, baby

I'm in Vegas, covering the Adult Entertainment Expo and the AVN Awards.

You can follow my coverage on my Forbes blog here.

Feel free to share the link with your friends.

Interview with a female skydiving instructor

I finished off this year of my Forbes blog with an inspiring interview. The post is part of a series I started this year: "Hey, [Your Name Here], How'd You Get That Job?" So far, I've interviewed an adult movie editor, a death revolutionary, a young entrepreneur, and a blogger.

I'd spent some time looking around for my next subject online, and I think I'd decided a woman who was gutsy enough to jump out of airplanes would probably have something to teach young women about overcoming fear in the professional and personal realms.

Here's my favorite quote from skydiving instructor Jen Sharp, who you see in the photo above (taken by Emily Royal) free falling and working on a laptop at the same time:

"Skydiving makes me feel both vulnerable and powerful at the same time."

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What do you want to be when you grow up?

Without a doubt, the blockbuster post of my Forbes blog this year was: "The Hardest Thing About Being a Male Porn Star."

Because I've worked previously in helping entertainment sites generate more traffic, I tend to have a sense of what will get a lot of clicks and what won't. But I really had no idea this post would become my most popular post of the year and the third most popular post in the section where my blog resides on Forbes.com.

I was surprised and continue to be surprised by the amount of traffic the post gets. So far, it has over 300,000 views, and it's the all-time most popular post on my blog.

Originally, the post was simply a series of quotes from the male porn stars I'd interviewed, but my smart editor pushed me to expand it and present it as a series of work tips.

I'm sure my failure to fully understand the popularity of the post has to do with the fact that I'm not a man. I think the subject matter appeals in a way that I simply cannot comprehend. But I wrote a post pondering that question: "Why Men Want to Be Porn Stars."

In an era in which “The End of Men” is being heralded, you can imagine the appeal of the male porn star fantasy to the Average Joe. The job of the Male Porn Star is unequivocally, undeniably male — so literally, one depends on one’s manhood to do it. This is what you are paid for as a male porn star: to be a man.

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Stop talking

I wrote a post on my Forbes blog about "How to Interview People."

For a story I did on the adult movie industry and the recession, I interviewed adult movie director Jim Powers.

I’d interviewed Powers before and know him. During the interview, which took place in his office with a desk between us, I failed to get a rise out of him.

Eventually, I did.

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That's a wrap

Check out my "30 Days of Freelancing" series on Forbes:

At some point, I read a quote from Andy Warhol that I loved:

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

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Marathon

Are you following my "30 Days of Freelancing" series on Forbes?

It's like a marathon, and I'm a sprinter.

Check it out.

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Hey, lonely freelancer

I spent some time this week interviewing freelancers about what they like and don't like about their jobs. The results are pretty interesting.

My favorite answer I used in the title: "You Are All Alone." I think that's the hardest part about freelancing: the isolation.

I also liked this:

“Be kind. Don’t be a drama queen. Show up on time and do the work without complaining. Ask questions. Be honest and direct. Ignore the comment section. Trust your editors. Make sure you get everything (money-wise) in writing. And again: be kind, be kind, be kind.”

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I get email

Would you like to do a piece for your forbes column? I got a memoir on work as a regulator in the funeral industry and an engineer as well.

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7 habits

Freelancer? Independent contractor? I've got "7 Habits of Highly Effective Freelancers":

4. Diversify yourself.

I’m a journalist. I’m a pundit. I’m a copywriter. I’m a photographer. I’m a blogger. Who are you today?

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Daily

Over at my Forbes blog I'm doing a series called "30 Days of Freelancing." If you can't figure out what it is, for 30 days, I'm blogging about freelancing.

Probably the hardest thing about doing it is that I have to post every day. This means you have to do it. You can't not feel like it.

Of course, this is what's good about it -- it forces you to go places you might not go otherwise.

Here's an excerpt from Day 8:

TIP #2: Don’t mix metaphors.

I spend approximately 10 minutes of my weekly 50 minute therapy session discussing the aforementioned issue.

“I want to stop burning bridges,” I tell my shrink. I rattle off a list of bridges I’ve burned over the years.

My shrink tells me that my problem isn’t burning bridges; it’s that I’m not swinging for the fences.

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