Things before NaNo: Articles and Helium Marketplace

Before I move to the actual point I have some articles to share.

New articles:

- Is donating blood good for you? which is an article I wrote for Helium Marketplace but it didn't get purchased.

- Everything You Need to Know About Helium Marketplace published at AssociatedContent.

Now, this second article needs some disclaimer. I've written three articles for Helium Marketplace. First one, about Tattoo Removal techniques was purchased. The other two weren't. One was about effects catnip has on cats and the other (linked in this post) about donating blood.

Like I've written in the article about Helium Marketplace, I still want to write articles there, but I don't think it's a perfect place nor that it's for everybody.

Next, because it's the end of the month,l I wanted to do a little of statistics.

Top earning articles at Helium:

- Experience with ReviewStream.com
- How young is too young to wear makeup?
- Which is better for writers: Finding a print or online publisher?

It's fun to see the top articles being from different categories and still performing well.

Unfortunately, I won't get paid from Helium this month. I find their minimum ($25) a bit too much to achieve in one month given my amount of involvement (which isn't much, and could be more). I won't probably be able to do much in November, with NaNo on my mind. But hopefully December will prove to be a lot more profitable than October.

Top earning articles at AssociatedContent:

- Get Paid to Write Reviews with ReviewStreamCom
- 6 New Years Resolutions for Freelancers
- How My Blog Earned Google Page Rank in Just Two Months


Now, I made a decision to be more topic specific at AC and so far I stuck to the freelancing, but it's very possible that I'll branch out a little. Either in December or next year. I also expect that the New Year Resolutions for Freelancers will have it's peek in December/January. For obvious reasons. I'll also get paid from AC, but it's not that difficult to achieve as the minimum payout is only $1,50

Now, you can see that the most popular article on both sites is the one about ReviewStream. And it's understandable, because it's an interesting concept and I still write for that site. Though, I have to admit, the minimum you have to reach is a bit overwhelming and not as easy to achive as on those others sites.

Alright. That's all for statistics. I just want to warn you that I won't be posting much during NaNo as I want to save up all my wordcount for fiction.

Please wish me luck :)

Worth Your Attention - End of the Week Extravaganza

Every day I'm ready many, many articles about writing, editing and publishing. Sometimes I spend more time simply reading than I do writing. And while that particular attitude is probably not healthy if one wants to earn a lot of money with writing, learning certainly helps you improve.

Bellow is a round-up of links to articles I found especially interesting and/or helpful. While most of them (but not all!) could've been found on my Twitter as I was reading them, not everybody is following me. Here's the list. I hope you'll find it interesting.

Written by others:

On Efficiency, Or How To Get Everything Done As A Multi-Tasking Writer @ The Creavite Penn
Writer’s Guide To Twitter @ Inkygirl.com
Prizes for Writers - list of contests for writers @ Bizzia.com
Inside the Agent/Client Revision Process @ Kidlit.com
Why e-books are hot @ Smashwords
4 Questions Asked and Answered about Writing for Magazines @ AboutFreelanceWriting
10 WordpressThemes for Writers @ EditorUnleashed
Why keepig business hours is the right thing to do Part 1 and Part 2 @ Bizzia.com
Tips on why your short story didn't win (longer fiction writers should read, too) @ The Willesden Herald
The Path To Becoming A Power Writer | Train yourself to write everyday @ FictionMatters
What it is like to be a stay-at-home writer @ Helium.com

Written this week by me:

Preparing for NaNoWriMo: 5 things to do before November @ AssociatedContent
Is donating blood good for you? @ Helium.com

Planning for the future and Links

With NanoWriMo coming up in just two weeks I should probably be at least outlining those three stories that I want to do during the November extravaganza. But instead, I'm slowly getting my writing up to speed. Meaning I'm trying to train myself to write those 1670 words a day and not get a writer's burn-out.

Which probably explains why the first article I published after the long break is Preparing for NaNoWriMo: 5 Things to Do Before November.
I've written about NaNo before, but it's the first time I actually offered some tips. I hope you will find them useful.

On a related news, Joanna Penn at CreativePenn posted a great article: On Efficiency, Or How To Get Everything Done As A Multi-Tasking Writer which I found extremely useful. Especially since I'm doing a lot of multitasking nowadays.

Apart from being busy with training myself before NaNo, I've done a lot of thinking about how I want my freelance career to look like. And what I decided on was to create an e-book. A guide for aspiring freelance writers who are not necessary based in the US. Non-US writers face different problems, have to go around things in a slightly different ways. Some venues are more friendly for Non-US writers and others are completely closed for them.
That said, I don't want to alienate US writers completely and I feel they would find that ebook useful as well.

It won't be ready this year, of that I am sure of. However, I want to have a first draft ready before June 2010. I know! I know! It's not a very immediate deadline, but there is a lot of research I need to do. And I need to keep in mind that I already have writing projects on my plate: NaNo and then a story due to May 2010. Not to mention the article writing for Helium and AssociatedContent. And I want to write up some reviews to reach payout at ReviewStream.

See? A lot of work.

In the meantime:
My Helium Portfolio
My AssociatedContent portfolio

Projects worth considering

Let's start with the obvious one, at least for those of you who write stories and novels or really want to.

It's October, and therefore it's time to sign up to NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is an annual online event. Every year since 1999, November become the month when all over the world, people are writing their novels.

I haven't participated in the event since 2007 and I decided that since 2009 is a year of great changes in my life, with the job, with finishing a bigger story for the first time and with my first actual income from my writing; it might as well be the first year when I manage to write 50 000 words in a month. I did a little math, it means writing 1670 words a day. Do you think you can pull this off? I suggest you at least check out the main NaNo website, and the forums.

I already signed up and if you want to add me to your buddy list, just leave me a comment with your ID at NaNo and I'll add you.

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Another project I decided to take on is the new contest over at Writer's Digest. I have never entered in a competition before but I think I could actually pull this off. Even in a recession, $15 entry fee doesn't seem like much. And hell, from where I'm standing it's going to be not only a good writing experience, but also a great adventure.

So if you don't plan on entering, keep your fingers crossed for me.
And if you do enter. Good luck!

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I think taht's all when it comes to an update on me and my writing projects. Other than the fact that ReviewStream finally set up a Control Panel for its writers and I can finally track my submissions. If you write for them, it's definitely worth checking out.