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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Challenge Update

Here's a photo of colorful and bright daiquiris. The weather is just so dreary here, I needed something bright, colorful and alcoholic to get me going today :) No, I haven't had a drink yet, but will have a little drink later this evening to kick off this challenge. Cheers! to everyone joining in, following along and doing their own challenges!

Yesterday was a $74.00 day. So, I basically cut down what I need to make for the remainder of the week to $801.00. Yesterday was a typical Monday with lots of school and my typical Monday scheduling and behind the scenes work. I would have liked to knock out $125.00 though and have no one to blame, but myself. I was watching the NBA playoffs while working and got a bit caught up in the games.

Also, today, I am just now getting started with work at 6:32pm Eastern. This is actually a good thing because it allows me to show you that while I could just call it a day and do no work, I won't. I am going to put in the hours and knock out at least three BrightHub articles for a total of $30.00 bucks, my Yahoo Medical News article for $15.00, I have two more Yahoo Sports articles on deadline totaling $21.00, I want to get two Daily Glow articles in for a total of $20.00 and want to get my first Gather Politics written and submitted. I also have some research done for a Livestrong article so since the hard part it done, I might as well knock that out too. That would be $20.00. That would bring my grand total to $106.00. That puts me $20.00 behind where I want to be for the day, so I will either knock out another Livestrong article or do another two Daily Glow. I should do the other two Daily Glow articles because I have a monthly quota with them and planned to do three a day for the remainder of the month.

At this time, I am not including Gather in my totals because I will not know how much Gather will bring in until a day or two after the articles publish. Once I get rolling with them (I was literally just accepted) I will be able to better judge and figure in my income from them.

As long as I stay focused, I should be able to knock out this work quite quickly. Due to getting a bit behind the last two days, I will carry my week into Saturday. That is fine because I am used to not taking days off anyway. For this challenge my goal was working 5 days a week, but as we know, when building a career, you have to expect to work weekends, evenings and holidays here and there. I still do fully intend to take off Sunday and just work on my blogs and school on that day. We shall see though! I forgot how hard it was being a freelance writer and not using private clients. It really can be a lot more work due to the less pay per article with mills and farms. While I am already missing my private clients, I will absolutely keep going with this challenge because this is how I started so I know it can be done. It is like going home after not being there for a while. There is a comfort to it. The change of pace is quite nice though. The less strict guidelines and less "depth" (not exactly the word I am looking for) are really nice. I guess I just feel a bit more free because with mills and farms I am able to choose my own topics for the most part and can write for the layman. None of that technical stuff. It is quite nice.

So that is the gist of the update for now. If I don't get to writing, I will be up all night. Be looking for another one in the next 48 hours. I will probably stop by with other random posts with tips and advice as well in between challenge updates. And, remember, if you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment and I will address it. Happy Writing!

Photo Credits: Jill Chen

5 comments:

Renata Yvonne said...

You work so hard, you deserve a drink!

Tony Payne said...

You really do work very hard. With working an office job during the day, my writing time is very limited, limited in fact to the evenings, when my wife also demands attention.

There are two types of income however, active and passive.

All those articles that you are writing for YCN, are going to hopefully be generating a passive income over the months (and years) to come, as people continue to find and read them, so over time, every article that you write ought to add to that passive income.

Personally, most days I struggle to write one article a day, which is shameful. I am looking more to residual income as time goes on though, because I don't want to "have to" write full time just to survive, each and every day, if I do lose my job or when I retire. I am hoping that I can build up enough regular income so that I can take it easier at some point.

R. Elizabeth C. Kitchen said...

Thank you, Renata!

Thank you, Tony. It is not shameful for you. You work a full-time job in addition to writing. You are on the right track. You write when you are able and are working toward building your library for the future.

pbquig said...

Robin, what is the url for "Daily Glow" and what is it?

Pam
Pirate Knitting

freelance proofreading services said...

I really like the advice as well in between challenge updates, and also this is important to know, so i will say big thanks to you!