AOL bought Huffington Post for $315 million, then decided to go with full-time writers and not freelancers such as myself for its website “content.”

I’m still around, writing and editing as a freelance journalist. I’m starting a website aimed at helping dads and families save money, and so far have a Facebook page called ValueDad.

I continue writing for Dealnews about the psychology of shopping and related topics, and I have a few other websites I’ll be writing for soon (regularly or not hasn’t been determined yet), so check back for more details. I’ll be writing about family finances for one site, hopefully starting this week, so if you have story pitches in that area, I’m all ears.

I hired a business coach today, who will help me as I start a website aimed at dads seeking personal finance information. And I’m also planning to reinvent myself as a provider of blogs/stories for corporate websites based on the personal finance work I’ve done at WalletPop and elsewhere.

To all the PR people and others pitching me story ideas, I’m still interested and for now will be focusing on shopping and family finances for the sites I continue to write for. I hope to expand into more areas, but plan on focusing on personal finance. I’m also continuing representing clients in public relations, helping them get their messages out.

For fun, here’s some of the letter I got this morning, alerting me to being laid off:

Hi there –

Thank you very much for your contributions to AOL. As we have discussed on calls and in emails, going forward our editorial direction is to build a great team of full-time editors, writers, and reporters.  To that end, we are reducing the scope of AOL’s freelancer program.

The adventure begins again.

But the commentary from someone in the printing industry I just had to share. They’re about the WalletPop story I wrote in September 2010 about overpriced products to avoid, including greeting cards that could be printed cheaper at home. A few websites, some big, some I’ve never heard of, ran the story after it appeared on WalletPop, and the commentator read it in Reader’s Digest.

Here’s some of the commentary:

Crowe, apparently an unreformed Ebenezer Scrooge, suggests we make our own cards. I am going to guess there is no Mrs. Crowe in the picture.

If your age has less than two digits or you are in the early throes of courtship, a DIY card can be very endearing. Otherwise, pony up a few bucks and buy a card. Love is patient and love is kind. But it is not a cheapskate.

“If you don’t want to draw your own card, print one out from online,” says Crowe. “Printing them at home for virtually nothing beats paying $4 at the store.”

You know how some people hide the good silver when certain relatives visit? Crowe’s family and friends should consider hiding their toner refills. Stealing cartridges is the only way to print at home for “virtually nothing.”

I sent the writer a note, telling her that my wife appreciated her insights.

Instead of me going door to door, applying for jobs online or seeking out businesses to hire me, I’m turning the tables and offering my services for the next two weeks so I can be an exclusive writer/editor for companies that need such work. I’m calling it “Rent a Journalist.”

As a freelance journalist since being laid off at a newspaper about three years ago, I’ve spent a lot of my time chasing down job leads, applying for jobs, and doing everything I can to get the next freelance assignment. I’ve had steady work for most of that time, writing personal finance stories for WalletPop. But that’s going to change soon.

The AOL site is being absorbed into another website as part of the Huffington Post acquisition by AOL. I work on a monthly contract and have been told to reapply for my job as a fulltime writer, which I’ve done, but I’m unsure if I’ll be hired fulltime. Since the company has offices in New York and Los Angeles, and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I don’t know if they’ll hire me fulltime to work from home, as many writers/editors at WalletPop do.

If we come to an agreement, great. If not, this is part of my backup plan, which I’m trying out for the next two weeks as I offer my writing and editing services, among other things such as social media liaison, to businesses.

Instead of wondering if I’ll be available to write for your website or publication in the future, you can lock me in with an offer now to work for you. I’ve covered personal finance for WalletPop for a little more than two years, and have some of the highest-trafficked posts on the website. I can do the same for you.

I’m open to long-term contracts or month-to-month; but what I’m mainly looking for is steady work and a commitment. It can be exclusive on a subject — family finances, for example — but that will take a longer commitment such as daily blog posts. Or it can be a weekly column on something like personal finance and the food industry, that will still be a long-term contract but is only for writing once a week.

The advantages to your company in signing me now? You get my time and work before anyone else does, guaranteeing you a steady stream of quality work that will be unique to your publication. As a journalist I’m trained in general assignment stories, and can provide original reporting and writing on any topics you need. Again, I’ve specialized in personal finance writing for the past few years, so I can write for your site on those issues, or expand to tech, families, food, retail, education, health, and many others. For example, I currently write for Dealnews.com about the psychology of shopping each week, so I wouldn’t be available to write about that topic for other sites.

I have other services I can provide, including helping with social media campaigns, writing publicity and press releases, covering corporate events, and photography.

Don’t let this opportunity pass. Rent a journalist — this journalist — before it’s too late.

NBC TV station in Columbus, Ohio, on Cleveland at No. 2 on list.

CNBC at least provided some good links back to original story.

Gawker story gets plenty of comments.

The Detroit News has a blurb about it.

Mlive.com, which owns newspapers in Michigan, is pleased that Detroit isn’t as bad as Cleveland.

New York Daily News is happy New York City isn’t on the list.

LA Weekly takes the low road and says AOL is a website for geezers, all while misspelling website.

New Jersey Newsroom cites story as “intelligent commentary.” Thank you.

The website ivpressonline in El Centro — which tops the list — speaks up.

The blog Miami New Times admits how bad it is there.

Indy Posted, a news website for busy people, linked to story but left a word out in its introductory paragraph.

Opposing Views likes all caps.

It turns out I’m not the only person who thought Stein went too far with his commentary dissing the unemployed as lazy.  Media Matters for America was critical of Stein. ThinkProgress.org points out that unemployment didn’t double during the recession because of lazy workers, but because of a bad economy.

The American Prospect takes it a step further, pointing out Stein’s ethical lapse by shilling for a credit company that tricked people into thinking they were getting a free credit report. Labor demand, not supply, is causing high unemployment, the website says.

Read Stein’s commentary in the American Spectator and at AOL News, and then read my story at WalletPop, and tell me what you think.

It was a lot of fun and my first appearance on TV.  I also got to meet Sheila E as she left the green room to go to the set.

We shook hands and I told her how big of a fan I was for all of these years (mostly during the 1980s, although I didn’t tell her that), and how much I enjoyed her music.  Unfortunately, our handshake wasn’t taped for the audience to see, but here’s a video of her interview for the show:

Listen to the interview on generics to buy by clicking on this link:

file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Aaron/My%20Documents/Downloads/071910%20aaron%20crowe.mp3

I was also interviewed on WBAL in Baltimore. Listen here:

http://tiny.cc/y74cn

I’m available for more radio and TV interviews. I still can’t get my TV interview on kids’ finances online yet; it’s not working on the ABC San Francisco website.

I know that the day I was laid off is one I’ll never forget. The Lemonade documentary, however, focuses on much more than that and is an enlightening story.

I’ll post the WalletPop link here when my story runs, hopefully within a few days or early next week.

I wrote a story for WalletPop today about an Internet hoax that Russell Crowe (no relation) was dead. He’s not. He’s fine.

And so am I, although I used the same website that someone used to create the Russell Crowe hoax to come up with the same headlines if I were an actor:

• Luxury yacht sinks off coast of St. Tropez France, Actor Aaron Crowe reported missing
• Actor – Aaron Crowe Falls To His Death In Austria
• Actor Aaron Crowe hospitalized after traffic altercation
• Actor – Aaron Crowe Falls To His Death In New Zealand

All in good fun, and I’m safe. I haven’t even been to any of those places, although I may have driven through Fullerton, CA, where the traffic accident supposedly happened. And that’s not Emma and I in Austria in the photo above.

It’s all a hoax that the linked website lets anyone create with a template it has set up. While it’s tempting to fake your own death, don’t set up a celebrity for such headaches.

I was on one of the segments, at about 10:30 a.m., but his segment on the KCBS Web site cut me out as a source.  I heard the live version and was happy for my seven seconds of fame and being described as a financial reporter.

To be cut out of the online version is a reminder of the many sources I’ve had to cut from many news stories over the years because they didn’t fit the final draft for some reason.  It was interesting to be on the other side.