We have been looking for a freelance/part-time content developer for our company for some time and have been getting good response from interested people. We have been asked several questions regarding the position and we felt it would be better for everybody if we write out the exact requirements we are trying to fulfill and the responsibilities of the position. So here it is now in black and white.

Who can apply?

Anybody with excellent English skills can apply for this position. You do not have to be in Kerala or even India and can be anywhere in the world. There are no requirements on the basic educational qualifications of people applying for this position.

What is the skill set required?

Excellent written English skills, ability to write entertaining articles, interest in writing articles, interest in researching about topics, ability to compile information from different sources, ability to search online efficiently and effectively.

How much will you be paid?

We will be paying at a flat rate of Rs. 250(approx 6 US Dollars) per article of 750-1000 words and any article that has 1000 unique hits in a span of a week will get Rs. 500 (approx 12 US Dollars) and any article that has 5000 hits in a span of a week will be paid Rs. 1000 (approx 25 US Dollars). You can earn anywhere between 7500 to 30000 Rs a month if you can successfully create content that is worth reading. For articles that are 400 - 600 words in length the corresponding rates will be 150(approx 4 US Dollars), 300(approx 7 US Dollars) and 700(approx 18 US Dollars). Articles smaller than 300 words will not be considered. Border line cases will be considered depending on the merit of the article. Payment will be paid on a per article basis and if you so desire you could have the payments on a weekly or monthly basis.

What are the modes of payments?

If you are outside of India we will be making the payments through Paypal and in US Dollars. The current conversion rates between Indian Rupees and US Dollars will be used as the basis. If you are in India we have a few different payment options. We can deposit the money in your bank account provided your bank has a branch in Trivandrum. We can also send the money through Money Order. You will have to let us know your preferred method of receiving payment.

What do you have to write about?

There will be two options for picking the topics of the article - You can select a topic on your own or write about one of the topics we provide. If you are selecting a topic on your own you will have to get our approval before you write the article. If you go through our site you will also be able to identify the general trend of the topics. Basically you will have to generate content that will bring potential customers for our products and services to our site.

What will be the modus operandi?

Once you pick your topic, either on your own or from our list, you will have to let us know the topic you have selected. This will allow us to maintain a list of articles that are being worked on and there by prevent duplicate efforts. After that you will have to send us a short abstract on what the article is going to deal with. Once we agree on all the finer points you can write the article. Once we receive the article we will reserve the right to decide to post the article or not based on the agreed upon criteria. Also we might request you to modify the article depending on whether it has contradicted with the agreed upon abstract or contradicted with company views and policies. Once approved the article will be posted on the site. Payment will be made a week after posting the article to allow for inclusion of bonus payments if any.

What about the quality of the article?

The content should be reasonably clean of errors. Spelling mistakes will not be tolerated at any cost and you will be expected to run a spell checker through your article before submitting it. Grammatical error rate should not be more than 2 or 3 per article and if not the article will be rejected.

Should the content be unique?

Absolutely Yes. The content generated should be unique and any article found to have content copied from other websites will be summarily rejected. We will be running a line by line test on the article to find copied content and any article with content copied from other sites will result in us rejecting the article. If you repeat the mistake 3 times our relationship will also be terminated.

Will there be any time commitments?

There will not be any time commitments in terms of delivery or deadlines.

Will you be able to use the articles for other sites?

No. Zyxware will retain complete right over the articles you create. However the articles will be rightfully attributed to the authors and we will be happy to give a link back to your blog or personal site.

What are some sample topics that you can write about?

The following are some topics that we have shortlisted. You can write articles about any of these topics.

Linux Applications for everyday use corresponding to equivalent windows applications
Comparison between Drupal and Joomla
Drupal - An ideal solution for a corporate web site
Use GMAIL as your mail server
Protect your computer from spyware, adware and malware
Common symptoms of virus attack and its solutions
Migrating from Wordpress to Drupal
Free Anti-Virus Software for your Home PC
Power Backup Solutions for your Office or Home Office
Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Networking Solutions
Managing your IT Infrastructure
UPS for Home PC Users
Estimating UPS battery specifications from power requirements
Using Testdisk to recover lost partition or fix a corrupt partition table
Managed Wordpress Hosting Service
Managed Drupal Hosting Service
Customizing Wordpress for a simple company website
Comparison between Drupal and Wordpress
Customizing Drupal for an advanced Corporate Website
A guide for small businesses moving to Linux
Open Source Portal Systems - A review
Wordpress - An easy way to start your website
Points to consider before upgrading your old PC
FLOSS Software for your Windows PC

Are there non-technical topics that you can write about?

Even if you are not comfortable writing on technical topics you can still apply for the position as we will have lots of other freelance content development opportunities coming up. We are also interested in working with people who have a desire to actively get involved in socially relevant projects and at the same time earn a decent living.