NaNoWriMo action plan.

Like every good writer who started by writing fiction I'm getting ready for NaNoWriMo this year.

But unlike every other year, I wont be working on any story. Even though like every year I have my original novel ready to go back to as well as three other ideas that I'd love to turn into full on novels.

I decided to make this NaNoWriMo all about my non-fiction writing. Like a Helium Summer Reward-a-thon, only without actual upfront payment. I want to write at least one article a day. Which, given that each of my articles is a 500 words avarage, would set my goal at 15000 words written in articles in November.

I do realize that it's nowhere near the actual 50000 words goal all the NaNoWrimers have, but I'm pretty sure that if there's any muse left in me, I will probably write some more on my novels in progress.

Wish me luck :)

Article SOLD!

This might not seem like a lot, but the article I've submitted to the Helium Marketplace have been purchased.

Yeah, I did a little happy dance and re-read the notification e-mail that informed me of that fact.
I think I feel slightly excused for not writing anything recently. Though I'm painfully aware of the fact that if I want to be serious about my writing and earning a living with it I will have to start writing everyday...

Read my Helium Articles: http://www.helium.com/users/431779/show_articles

New writing platform

I decided to give AssociatedContent a try. The first time around, when I was looking into websites that would pay me for my writing, I dismissed AC because as a Non-US citizen I didn't qualify for the Upfront Payment. However, right now, I understand it's not the most important thing...
I like the fact that their minimum payment is $1.50 (unlike Helium, where it's $25)

I want to submit 5 articles there so I could qualify for the October bonus of $10. WE'll see how I manage with that, because at the same time I want to try to enter one of Helium's Writing Contests.
Do keep your fingers crossed for me :)

Unfortunately it's been crazy at my daytime job and I wasn't able to concentrate at home to write anything new. But I'm still waiting for the decision about the Helium Marketplace article I submitted.

Getting backlinks

Backlinks and Page Rank are very important to promote one's work. And since I'm just starting I figured that while I might not be able to write everyday, I should at least make sure my writing is read.

I decided to promote my work via various sites.
First of all, I use Twitter to post links to articles I just published. It might seem like not much, but it actually adds some readers.

I post about my articles to my personal blog and that gives me some more clicks.
When I'm talking about some subjects in forums, discussion boards or my blogs and I know I wrote an article about that already, I link to it as well.

And recently, I started to use a site called Qassia. It allows you to earn Qassia dollars that can be spent to get quality backlinks to your sites. I think it's a great idea as backlinks apparently influence page rank that has an impact to where your site is positioned in search engines...
So yes. I use Qassia to get this blog higher in the ranks.

Read more on the subject:
Promoting your writing on the Internet

Reality Check

So my very ambisious plan to write something profitable everyday were really cool, but apparently I cannot just jump into the whole writing business. Not with a full-time job and classes on the weekends. I will have to adjust the plan to the life that I have... Hmmm, I wish I wouldn't have to.

Fortunately I'm still capable of working on my PTC sites because they can be open in the background while I check my emails and relax after the whole day of classes. They don't offer much, but it's still something. And I'm patient :)

Unfortuantely due to a lot of work next week at my full-time job I won't be able to do much writing as I will be too stressed and mentally exhausted to come up with something good. But I'm hoping I will be able to come up with some ideas I'll be able to turn into writing during next weekend. I really want to write something for triond.com and maybe give assosiate content and suite 101 another look... I'll have to think about it some more.

Money records and keywords

So because I'm a freak yesterday, in between of posting to MyLot, I was playing in Exel (yes, I actually have Microsoft Office and I actually like it better than Open Office, sue me). I created a nice spreadsheet to keep track of all my earnings online.

I do realize it's a bit anal, but I actually had fun creating it. I like to have stuff organized and written down.
Besides, I write for more than one site and I'm also on three Paid-to-click sites (Bux.to and Clixsense and Hits4Pay) and to be able to better manage my time (I do waste 8 hours in my regular job, you know?) I want to see which sites are actually worth bothering with.

I want to see which sites are worth the investment (getting a premium account or writing more articles for that particular site).

So far I like Helium the best. I recently submitted an article to Helium's Marketplace and we'll see what will come of that.
I actually wrote about subject I know little to none about (tattoo removal). But I did extensive research and was able to write a nice 600 words article.

I worked with keywords for the first time (conciously putting them in), so I can't say I haven't learned anything new ;)
I think now my articles will be slightly better in that area.

Read my past articles at Helium

Get paid for your writing

Make no mistake. This is not a blog that will tell you how to get rich as a freelance writer. Rather this blog was created to document my journey. And if you can benefit from my experiences, well good for you.

You see, I want to be a professional writer. I want to be able to support myself with my writing, or at least have writing add to my monthly income. Preferably in a significant way.

And because the Internet is a place of many possibilities, I think it's the right place to start.

So what have I achieved so far?

Well I have/had a blog where I wrote articles with a sole purpose of giving people advice how to become a better writer of fiction. But due to my real life I had to put it on hold in June 2008. Then, I moved to actual writing that could profit me. I would want to keep on posting there, however, I don't know if I'll be able to do that.

As to the actual paid writing.

I have 21 articles published on Helium. They don't bring me any huge income yet, but they all earn few cents here and there. I also took part in Helium's Summer Reward-a-thon. I only wrote  4 articles thought. Still, it's extra $4 apart from the income from ads displayed with my articles.

I wrote few reviews for ReviewStream, unfortunately I'm still far away from payout there. At the moment, I really don't feel like writing reviews, but since I want to get paid there, I will have to get over that little block.

I am semi active at mylot as well. I am sure I will meet payout in October. I really like it there because starting and responding to discussions don't take too much of my creative juices and yet, it still offers some extra dollars. I do realize this little venue will never become a significant part of my income, however it will do just fine for the small pleasures :)

I also have profiles in few other places, but I haven't posted anything there yet. When I finally do, I will post about them here. Though you can find the links to those places in the sidebar. If you decided to check them out, do drop me a line and tell me how they are working out for you. :)