Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Halfway through the month- Check up

December is halfway over, so I thought I would give a little update on how I am doing reaching my writing goals. As a writer, it's so important to set goals for yourself that are both reasonable and challenging. This not only helps you grow as a writer, but it also helps you stay productive during those times when another activity is calling your name.

Early on in the month, I discovered a nice little Christmas surprise from examiner.com. As it turns out, someone had used me as a referral and it had been credited to my account. I'm actually reconsidering continuing to write for examiner for this very reason. Although the page views are not always great, the writing there is quick and easy and the referral rates are quite good ($50). If you are considering writing for this site, please consider signing up with me as your referral (I'm the Cincinnati Staycations Examiner- Rachel Campbell). I would greatly appreciate it!

I've written two Suite 101 articles so far this month, and my goal is to get to five. Since I am more familiar with the format and style, I'm finding it much easier to crank them out. I haven't written another eHow article yet, although I would like to do at least one. And for demand studios, I am about halfway to my goal.

I'm pretty pleased with how things are going writing-wise this month. The morning sickness has really started to let up, so I think the productivity should stick with me the rest of the month. However, we will be away for Christmas during the last week in December, so I really only have one more week to get everything done! Nothing to get me going like a little challenge.

I also received a call from a magazine I had queried way back in June. They left a message saying they would love for me to do the proposed article but would have to get back to me as soon as they work out what issue it would be in! This is great news and a real motivator to get back into querying magazines. Since print publications pay so much more, it's an avenue always worth exploring, and who doesn't like seeing their name in print?

Friday, December 4, 2009

Tips on Staying a Productive Writer

I'd like to think that I'm back on the productivity boat again- the past few days have been a writing freenzy, and I've already exceeded my output from November. The beginning of the month leaves a lot of room for a lot of work to get done, but unless I am adament at it, it could easily get thrown to the wayside. I know a lot of writers struggle with getting enough work put in, and so I've come up with a list of tips to help keep you motivated to write and how you can become a more prolific writer.
  1. Set goals and really mean them. I know that I've set goals in the past, only to half-heartedly attempt to acheive them. Intent is the issue here- so set goals you can reasonably see yourself fulfilling.
  2. Chuck your writing time into blocks. Don't have an hour? Set a timer for fifteen minutes and write non-stop until it goes off. Do this 3 or 4 times throughout the day and before you know it, you have written for an hour.
  3. Keep ideas handy. There are times where a wave of ideas for articles hit me, and I make sure to write them down. Theses lists have helped me countless of times when I just want to write instead of brainstorm.
  4. Write often. It's true that the more practice you have, the easier it gets. I find when I am writing everyday that it is much easier and much quicker to churn out articles than it is when I am not writing often.

For more tips on the writing life, check out my eHow articles:

Thursday, December 3, 2009

A Dismal Earnings Report... November Earnings

My earnings this month were virtually non-existant due to the fact that I hardly wrote anything. Severe morning sickness is to blame, as is sleeping over 12 hours every day! Here are the stats:

eHow- $15.50 (25% DROP!)
Examiner- $1.02
Demand Studios- $15.00
Google Adsense- $2.23
Suite 101- $6.54
Private Clients- $0.00
Total= $40.29

I was disappointed that my eHow earnings dropped so drastically. I don't expect to earn much more than that in the coming months as I've pretty much stopped writing for them.

My Suite 101 earnings were also disappointing- I didn't even make payout! Although I added no new articles in November, I still thought I would have reached the payout. My guess is that November was just a slow month on the internet overall.

I am currently less than fifty cents away from my payout with Examiner.com. I only wrote one or two short articles in order to stay current with them last month, but I fully intend to leave that site behind for good after December.

Since my sickness prevented me from writing much, I only wrote one article at Demand Studios- such a measly number compared to all my other months spent working for them!

My goals for December are not ambitious, but since I am getting back into the groove of writing, they will be challenging enough. I plan on writing at least 20 articles at DS and several at Suite 101 (I am required by contract to write 10 articles for Suite every 3 months). The good news is that I am feeling much better, and my morning sickness is finally subsiding! So I should have no problem meeting my goals for this month :-)

How did you do in November?

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