AIMs new Freelance Program

[HarleyCruiser]

Well looks like the cats out of the bag.
The idea is to link people who have always wanted to write with people who love to take Harley photos, with regular guys like us who are building cool bikes in there garage.
This is to help them get there articles published, bikes featured.
My idea, is to have a separate area, called Freelance, that writers, photographers can get encouragement, knowledge on how to improve there work, and get published.
The articles that do get published will be linked to the web page. “See more at AIMAG.com.”
Possibly in the future bikes will be assigned to writers and photographers.
There will always be articles written by AIM staff writers, and feature writers.
The idea is to give the staff more editorial choice.
We have some excellent writers in here and some real good photographers who with a little help could take that next step up.
There are no guarantees, no free rides.
Don’t expect Buzz KantEr, or Chris M to hold our hands.
This is up to us.
This has moved forward so fast that it is changing every day.
What is in it for the AIMers? We get to see lots of neat bikes that are out there before anyone else.
We get to see the process of creating articles and get advice about taking photos.
I have been recruiting some quality people to join us.
I am not trying to steal them away from their loyalty, but to expand there visibility.
This will not take away for the AIM forum, not going to change it, but hopefully take it to the next level, and have a active part in the direction of American Iron
How can you help, if you know anyone who would love to be published, or someone who has a real nice custom bike, tell them about us. Let them know that we are interested in what they are doing. Ask them to join us.

[Hammerhead Pat]

Great ideas and best of luck!

Excellent insight and oppertunity. Keep it going HC.

[Bargain Hunter]

Pretty good idea and it would let us see more differnt kinds of bikes in the rag and here.

[street bob]

OK..I'm just a dumb azz here...
Are you asking the john q public toy write stories on their own scoots??, or asking the john q public to send in photo's of their bikes and you may set them up with a novis writer to write up their bike??????
Dunno???????

[HarleyCruiser]

Originally Posted by street bob

OK..I'm just a dumb azz here...
Are you asking the john q public toy write stories on their own scoots??, or asking the john q public to send in photo's of their bikes and you may set them up with a novis writer to write up their bike??????
Dunno???????

First this is not an American Iron program; this is a AIM forum program.
This is our project.
This would be a place where you could come to talk to other people, other photographers, other writers, bike owner about writing an article to submit to the magazine.
Yes this is for the John q Public, anyone who would like to write a freelance article or shot photos for that article.
This would be a place where you could get encouragement, knowledge about how to do it.
Ideas about what to write about.
You would post your story, photos, for advice on how to make it better.
I would like to see a separate room that would not post to the main forum. But open to anyone who wanted to enter.
But like I said there are no guarantees that your article would be published just because it was written here.
One phrase that keeps popping up in my conversation with Buzz is "Magazine quality."I think we all want that, no one wants to change American Iron for the worse.
This might never work; in all honesty I have not even talked to Buzz about a lot of this. Some of this Buzz is reading in here for the first time.
I know every time he sees one of my post he is saying “Gees what is Cruiser doing now?”
I haven’t ask Mike to set it up yet, because I wanted to kick it around in here first, to see what kind of suggestions you guys have.
So fire away with any suggestions.

[oldhdrider]

What about the current writers that American Iron has. Is this going to replace them.
I love the staff they have now.

[HarleyCruiser]

Originally Posted by oldhdrider

What about the current writers that American Iron has. Is this going to replace them.
I love the staff they have now.

The American Iron staff and writers are the best in the business. This will not affect them in any way.
Hopefully they will use it for article ideas; recourses improve their work and make it easer.
Hopefully this will be cutting edge.

[frisco-rigid]

HC
I wish you the best luck in this project and whatever members, new or old, that are able to benefit from it..
However it doesn't sound or seem any diff from what's been offered to all AIMForum members from the forum start-up to present..

We've all been given the opportunity and encouragement to submit photos, stories and tech stuff to the MAG and the forum right along, and there have been a few posts from Buzz and Mike about just that..

And jeeeze, there certainly has not been a lack of contributions..

I guess the diff I see is that after submiting a story, photos etc you could get advice from others on how to improve it, ah, kinda like we already do with each others sickles now..
Anyway-----

I am not bum-kickin it,,,, just don't see any diff..

[Buzz Kanter]

Frisco, for the most part you are right BUT there is a big difference in what HC is trying for. And that is to tie in this forum with the print magazine a bit more for the benefit of both.

One of the biggest challenges we face with the magazine is lack of space - something the internet does not lack. And what this forum lacks is the attention of more members - something the magazine has.

So.......we are looking into how to bring benefit to both. The first way is for forum members to post a number of high quality photos of their bike (or a pal's) here on line with a brief write up. The AIM magazine staff review them regularly looking for ones worth some ink in the magazine. We are still working on the details but currently think we will pick a couple of "on-line" bikes to feature every month in print and then post the link info in the magazine for anyone interested in more photos and additional info on the bike.

Let's cross our fingers and see if this will work. If so, then the print magazine can run the same mix of feature bikes we do now from mild customs, reader's rides, pro-builds, classics and such AND still be able to run a photo or two of a few "real world" bikes from our forum.

Of course, we are always looking for other ideas and people who can help us grow to the next level - in print and on line. How about you Frisco Rigid?