2010 Online Writing Goals

My husband and I are currently following Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover, and we also like to listen to his show on the radio or podcast every weekday. Last week he talked about goals basically being dreams in workclothes. Goals have to be specific and have a time limit. I decided to write up some more writing goals, and in doing so, came up with a more detailed and specific course of action I want to take with online writing.

2010 Writing Goals Defined

Online:
-Increase passive income from $25mo to $100mo by June
**Create 2-3 new niche blogs with 10 pages of content, domain names, SEO focused, pictures**

-Write 10 articles a month at Suite 101 (2.5 a week)
-Write 1-2 articles a month for e-How
-Write 4 articles a month for Examiner (1 a week)

-Continue writing for my existing blogs, At least 2 posts a week
-Buy a domain name (choose a more SEO focused title)
-Comment on 5 blogs per week

Freelance w/ Magazines:
-Send out 1 query every month

I want to build up my passive income, so my main focus this year will be starting niche blogs and writing for Suite 101 and eHow. I've yet to build a successful niche blog, so this is a new area for me. I will be sharing my progress on them throughout the year here on Pen Meets Wallet.

Happy writing!

New Examiner Guidelines

I recieved an email in my inbox today from Examiner.com about some updates they are implementing for their writers. Starting immediately, all articles written by LOCAL Examiners will go through a review process to ensure they meet the following requirements:

-On topic
-Local interest
-200-400 word requirement
-Credibility (link to sources)

Although these have long been requirements for the writers of Examiner.com, they have yet to be enforced, and thus many writers have deviated from the original guidelines in effort to get more pageviews.

The new rules are something to cheer about, because not only will they help clean up the site, but writers will get paid more as well. That's right! For all articles that meet the guidelines, Examiner will pay a flat fee of $1 per article (max of 5 per week) as well as the traditional PPVs. This new payment system goes into effect January 23, 2010.

If you've been debating over whether or not to write for Examiner, this news might affect your decision. Even if your topic is unpopular, you will get paid for each relevant article that you write.

Anyone can apply for a local or national Examiner writing position. If you do, please feel free to use me as your referral- Rachel Campbell, Cincinnati Staycations Examiner.

I am really glad I decided to stick with Examiner, and I'm optimistic about what the future holds for writers there.

New look!

I've managed to stretch my technical skills on this blog! The new layout will hopefully make it easier to navigate and read. I am loving the simplier design. Come check it out if you currently subscribe in a reader!

December Earnings Update

I can proudly say that I met my goal this month, despite it being the holidays. However, I met my goal in an unusual way since the bulk of my earnings did not come from Demand Studios for once.

eHow- $10.40 (33% DROP)
Examiner- $125.83
Suite 101-$7.36
Demand Studios- $75
Google Adsense- $0.93
Private Clients- $0.00
Total= $219.52

My Suite 101 earnings are slightly up, but I did add several new articles this month. I did not blog as much this month as in the past, so my adsense earnings were down, but this was expected. I only wrote 5 articles for DS, but made up for it with my Examiner earnings, which were spectacular. I can only hope that this continues! I turned down any private client work since I was out of town for an extended period of time in December. My eHow earnings were disappointign again-only around $10-which means a 33% drop from November and a 50% drop from October.

My goal for January is to make the same amount ($200), but more than that would be ideal since we are working on saving money for when the baby comes. I may or may not have another print magazine assignment to work on as well, since I got the call that one of my queries was seriously being considered for publication (yay!). I queried this particular magazine way back in May, so it has really given me more motivation to get back to the drawing board. Since magazine writing can be excruciatingly slow, it's important to constantly churn out queries.

Some of my New Years Resolutions include:

• Clearing clutter from my home to make room for the baby
• send out 1 query a month to print publications
• Up my residual income to $100 a month (it's currently near $25)

How did you fare during the month of December? Share your goals and acheivements in the comments below.

(If you're new to online web writing, I encourage you to check out my sidebar where I post several writing opprotunities you can apply for.)