Recovering from November - update

As expected, I was completely quiet in November. And while I did great at the very beginning of the month, getting to an impressive 15k in the first week, unfortunately I succubed to flu and spent the rest of the month trying to recover. Because unlike one of my best friends, I am completely incapable of writing while on meds.

In case you're still wondering: no, I didn't manage to writng 50 000 words in one month.

There's still next year, right?

In other news, I was pleasantly surprised to see that while I haven't written any new articles or stories, I still got some passive income coming my way. The biggest shock was the fact that my earnings at Helium tripled and I earned in November three times the amount I got in October.

In a way, I think it's a direct result of my activity on social media, especially Twitter. Now, intelectually and from some minor past experience, I knew that Twitter and other social media help to market your writing, Helium provided me with actual, hard evidence (that is much more pleasant than the google analytics I had so far).

I wrote in the past about how to get more readers and promote yourself on the Internet:
Why Having a Blog Can Improve Your Earnings
Promoting your writing on the Internet

But I'm thinking about writing some more detailed pieces on that, because while not every writer who has an online presence has to think about marketing their work, it's certainly something worth knowing.

And the last thing I want to mention in this update is this whole "rates" discussion that has been going on recently on most of the blogs and websites for writers that I follow. The general consensus is that the rates are low and "content mills" are paying poorly, which affects the quality and the ability of writers to negotiate better rates.
Now, I don't want to add to this already heated discussion is a simple link to a guest post over at About Freelance Writing. You should also read the articles linked within that particular post. As the writer nicely points out. The only thing that stands between you and success is you. If you're earning poorly, you're the only person you can blame.

For example. I don't earn as much money with my writing as I could be. But I know that I'm the only one to blame here. I have a full time job, I study to get a degree, I RolePlay, I write fanfics instead of original stories I could publish and earn from them, I spend hours simply watching TV. And while I welcome all the income, I don't actively pursue the freelancing. If I did, I would no doubt pay more attention, I would limit the procrastination and my earnings would be much, much better.

Because no matter what are my rates, the only thing thast stands between me and success is ME.

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

Of Updates and Noteworthy

I decided to change one or two things about this blog.

First of all, I changed the layout, this one is much more clear and easier to use. And let's face it. Usability is something very important on the Internet.

Another thing you might notice is the Twitter feed in the sidebar. I've been using Twitter for a long time now, though admittedly I use it more ever since I got a Twitter desktop client (I'm not a big fan of staying logged on the site, it distracts me like nothing else).

Why the Twitter feed?

Because apart from random, RL tweets, I'm posting links to my articles almost immediately after they're published. I've written about it before, but it is worth repeating. Twitter is great when it comes to promoting your work.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter, but don't worry if you don't. I will keep posting links to my articles in my blog posts.

Another thing is a recommendation.


279 Days to Overnight Success, a free manifesto by Chris Guillebeau. It's a great ebook telling a story of how Chris became a full-time writer in less than a year. More importantly: how he is now capable of supporting himself purely on his writing. It's good to see that while Chris' website isn't huge, he still manages to earn enough money to pay the bills AND travel the world.

And while at first the idea of creating a successful business in under a year was a bit surreal, I quickly remembered that all you need is the right approach and everything is possible. After all, I did manage to get a Google Page Rank for this blog in just two months...

Visit my Helium profile
Visit my AssociatedContent profile

Jane Update for June

I've recently read three very interesting articles. "Success At Your Own Risk: The Monkey Bar Theory", "How to Achieve Ridiculous Goals" and "11 Pointless Blog Posts that Waste my Time". I have to admit they've made quite an impact on me. Because for the entire May, I've been procrastinating like there was no tomorrow...
Not to mention, they made me feel better about not posting regularly here. Made me realize I'm not spamming this blog. Which at the same time is a good and a bad thing.

Because I'm not posting regularly, I tend to forget I have this blog. Which usually leads to forgetting about the writing gig (especially when it's really busy at my day job). But because I'm not spamming this blog with pointless entries, I keep this serious. Not an excuse for a blog.

What the articles I linked to made me think about is setting up goals. Realistic goals to be completely within a month. And since I need a motivation, and nothing's a better motivation than avoiding public humiliation, I'll be posting those goals here and then reporting my progress at the end of the month.

JUNE GOALS:
Freelance Writing:
- Write 15 pieces (articles, reviews) capable of earning money.
- Make one post per week at Inspired.
- Go back to using Qassia at least once a week.

School:
- Pass all exams in June.

Other:
- Finish editing Monster Story
- Write 1K fanfic for fic exchange
- Reach 6K total wordcount
- Limit RP time so it doesn't take over my life.
- Going to gym at least two times a week.

Those goals seem realistic and enough of a challenge for the first time. I'll let you know how's it going.

Good news, Better news and more news

Before anything, I have two published pieces I want to share. First one is my regular piece for Scribophile about putting new spins on old tales, it's mostly for fiction writers as that's who the Scribophile members are in majority. Second one is finally published article for AssociatedContent and it's 6 New Year's Resolutions for Freelancers. That's basically 6 steps to further your career. And at the same time my own plan of what to do this year.
I have to admit I'm quite proud of both of them, though both took a lot of editing.

Another thing for those not following me on Twitter. I found out today that WritingMakesRich has it's own pagerank. Those who speak Google know it's a very good news. Especially since it's 3/10. For a little blog of only two months it's not bad. Not bad at all :) I'm planning on writing an article on how I achieved that sometime during the weekend or the first free moment I have.

Which brings us to Better news.

I landed another writing assignment. This time to write Press Releases for a SEO company. It's not a big one, but because of the deadline being this Friday I won't be able to write much for my passive income sites. Which means it will have to wait for Sunday (after my weekend classes). With this additional work and busy time at the office (now I understand why they say being part-time freelancer is challenging) I will probably have to write my weekly material for Scribophile tommorow at least...

It's exhausting but I think I like being busy with work. At least I'm working towards my projected income for this year.

My AssociatedContent profile.

Of Deadlines and New Year's Resolutions

So I have this love/hate relationship with deadlines. I love them because they force me to write, but at the same time I hate them because they force me to write...

Yes, I know it might sound slightly confusing, but I am perfectly capable of loving and hating something for the exact same reason. See, sometimes I need a push to do something. Deadlines provide me with that push.
But sometimes, I really don't have the muse to write anything but I have to force myself to do so, because... well, I'm on a deadline....
Getting into freelancing I was aware that I will have to make nice with the deadlines, because once I start getting work, I will start getting deadlines as well... Doesn't stop me from whining about it to my cat. Thankfully, my cat ignores me no matter what I whine about.

So that is my little rant about deadlines.
Next step: New Year's Resulutions.

Everybody I know always makes some sort of resolutions come New Year. I decided that I should do something similar regarding my freelance career.
Especially since soon it'll be Christmas and I will have some extra free time.

So here is the Great To-Do List for the year 2009:

1. Start using BizReef, Guru, Elance and oDesk. Complete profiles and start bidding on jobs that interest me.

2. Create a profesional website for my freelancing

3. Pay more attention to my blogs

4. Go back to writing for Helium, AssociatedContent, Ciao and ReviewStream.

Yes. Only 4 points. But when I look at them I see a lot of work before me. Especially since I also have a full-time job, school and family life to take care of.

But I'm sure I will be able to handle it all. Because I rule and it's Christmas soon. What with miracles and stuff :)

Happy Holidays everyone!

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