Am I Really A Writer?

Site Revamping

2010-03-02T17:44:00.000-05:00

I started this site when I was fairly new to freelance writing and therefore had a limited amount of information to share. Lately I have been learning a lot about keyword research and article marketing, so I have decided to completely revamp this site. Over the next few months I will be posting reviews for various content sites, tutorials for keyword research and some major tips for increasing your residual income. You will see some major changes around here for the good. I hope these changes will be of a benefit to you all and I can't wait to share everything I've learned while researching these past few months.

Make More with Bukisa

2010-01-18T16:17:00.000-05:00

I signed up with Bukisa awhile back. At the time I was just looked for writing sites that will build up my writing resume and adding a few passive income sites was a great way to do just that. However, I recently came across a post on Twitter where a writer has made a couple of thousand dollars in the past couple of months on Bukisa a lot of writer do well with passive income, but this lasy only had 10 published articles! It really got me thinking about how I want to work on passive income and how easy it can be if you pick the right topics.

Her topics weren't articles that were going to be high earners for years and years, but they were topics that people would be searching for now. While she used video game information, you can use any topic you want, as long as it's a hot topic. I have been thinking about this for a few days now and plan to use this strategy to increase my monthly passive income. Bukisa is a site where you can publish any type of article you choose; therefore, I will be writing at least one article per week there for the next few months and hopefully, we will see my income raise from pennies to dollars!

Passive Sentences Versus Active Sentences

2010-01-01T15:38:00.000-05:00

When I decided that it was time to quit my office job and become a full-time freelance writer, I also discovered that I was in serious need of a refresher course in English. I enrolled in college classes, read everything I could get my hands on and reviewed various websites in my quest to re-discover proper grammar. While trying to get various writing styles down, I discovered that many content sites wanted writers to write articles using an "active" voice as opposed to a "passive" voice. (Maybe I'm not the smartest tool in the shed, but I'm sure I'm not the first one who had no idea what this meant. After all, high school, for me, was a million years ago.) This is why it's important for beginning writers to take a step back in time and revisit their high school English course. Back then, sentence structure wasn't the most important thing in the world, what with parties to attend, friends to socialize with and all of the gossip going around.

Simply put, in a sentence constructed with an active voice, the subject acts. Mike swung the bat. This sentence is cuts to the point and the tells the reader what is happening. What did Mike do? He swung the bat, that much is obvious, but when the same sentence is written in a passive voice the author tends to sound unsure of Mike's actions. The bat was swung by Mike. Timid writers will use a passive voice, because to most people constructing a sentence in a passive voice makes them "sound" more intelligent. In fact, the opposite is true. Passive sentences tend to sound awkward and contain words that are unnecessary. When a writer writes in a passive voice, the subject isn't taking action, instead the subject has something done to it or is simply in a state of being. (As is poor Mike when the bat was swung by him.)

Active Sentence:

The cat scratched the boy.

Passive Sentence:

The boy was scratched by the cat.

There are instances when a passive voice should be used, (The robbery was committed at 10 PM. In this case, the subject of the sentence is unknown and a passive voice is necessary.) but in most cases and active voice is preferred. Companies want writers to master this skill. Not only does writing in an active voice make the writer sound more knowledgeable in the subject they are writing about, but it engages the reader and holds their interest longer. Master this skill; you will be glad you did.

Still unsure about your skills? Review what the sites below have to say and try your hand at some of the activities they list.

Choosing between Active and Passive Voice Verbs when Writing

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips

Review: Stephen King's On Writing

2010-01-01T13:28:00.000-05:00

My creative writing class starts next week. It's just one of the many English classes I need to take to obtain my BA in English. The required book for this class is a book written by Stephen King, titled On Writing. While the book covers fiction writing, I have found the book itself very intriguing. (maybe I will start a novel of my own.)

The book begins by Stephen sharing various bits of his life dating back to his childhood. Within each mini-story, you find a tidbit about how that moment helped develop his skills and made him the succesful writier he is today. While the stories are interesting, you will not find a step-by-step guide to writing a novel. (Of course, I don't thik even the best of writers could give a step-by-step account that will tell the average Joe how to write a book.)

Even writers who are interested in the more technical aspects of writing will enjoy this book. There are many basic aspects to the art of writing and Stephen King does his best to explain them in terms that even a bad writer would understand. Needless to say, while the topic of fiction writing won't help most of us who endeavor to succeed in writing non-fiction articles, the book is extremely well-written, will easily hold the aspiring wirters interest and may very well teach you something that you didn't know.

P.S. While I am not a huge Stephen King fan, (in fact, I was disappointed when I picked up the book at the college bookstore) I couldn't put this book down.

The New Site on the Block: Seed.com, What's it About?

2009-12-29T23:40:00.000-05:00

Some of the top gossip in the freelance writing world right now is about AOL's decision to launch a new content site. Seed.com is now up and running, but is it worth it to freelancers and can it stay competitive to some of our better paying sites?

The first thing that struck me as strange was the fact that I could sign up for an account without submitting any type of samples. Therefore, like many residual-income sites, anyone can join. Once you sign in, you will notice a wide variety of topics to choose from that quote a price of $25-$30 for araound 500 words. However, there is a catch. You can submit your article for approval, but so can countless others. Then the editor will choose which articles will be purchased. That's not really an idea I'm thrilled with if I'm going to spend time researching and writing an article, but I figured that if my article wasn't accepted I could always post it elsewhere to help generate passive income. Then I read a little further, the site states that the editor will choose which articles to buy. This can be one article or many; therefore if the payment is set for $30 and the editor chooses 6 articles, each person would recieve $5. This is the part of the site that I'm not okay with. I am willing to put my work up againast others, but I don't want to be forced to give the rights away to something I have worked hard on for hardly any money.

I did go through and claim a couple of topics. I have decided to put this stie to the test. (of course I'll keep a running tab on here for you all as well) Hopefully, AOL will eventually be able to compete with some of our more lucrative sites, but we will definitly have to wait and see.

Has anyone had an experience at Seed.com? If show share your experience and post a comment!

New Years Resolutions

2009-12-22T17:10:00.000-05:00

I have been planning for my New Year's Resolutions in both my personal and professional life. One thing for certain is that I normally set much goals too high and then get extremely stressed out when I am unable to meet them. Number one on my list is making and sticking to a set schedule.

I know I have talked about schedules time and time again, but I have still yet to stick to one myself. I came across something called Focus Booster recently thought and it has been helping me stay focused so I'm hoping that the schedule thing will work n the coming year. Needless to say here is a rough draft of my New Year's Resolutions:

1. Make a schedule and stick to it
2. Monetary goal: Start at $700 per week and work up to $1200 per week
3. Hit the gym three times per week
4. Go back on the South Beach diet and stick to it (I never seem to get past the no drinking at all for two weeks part)
5. Stop smoking (Making a dr. appt for this first thing next year!)

So, there's the start to mine, now let's here from you! What's your New Year's Resolution and how does it effect your writing?

Long Time, No Post!

2009-12-21T15:10:00.005-05:00

Okay, I know I haven't posted here in about a million years, but I have decided to resume blogging. Here's the thing, when you have a writing blog, it becomes tiring to post time after time about freelance writing. Honestly, I started to feel like other people's blog had information for writers that seemed to be a lot mor informative than I could ever post on here.

However, I really miss blogging. Blogging is kind of like therapy for people who have to sit at a computer all day long and type article after article. Therapy that I was missing out on. Besides, the fact is when it comes to my small world of writing friends, I tend to earn more than they do, so why not share my knowledge? There are many different types of writers out there and hopefully I can help a few.

Needless to say, I am back to posting here regularly, so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered shoot me an email!

Being Successful With Content Sites

2009-08-31T21:59:00.002-04:00

Writing for content sites is by far the easiest way to make some quick cash as a freelance writer, especially when you are first starting out. There are plenty of content sites out there that writers can apply to and most of them have a fairly steady amount of work. However, many people wonder just how successful you can be as a content writer.

Most content sites pay per article. The pay varies with the site and is normally anywhere between $5 and $15 per article. Technically, if you can land a position making $15 per article, you can write 10 articles a day, 5 days a week and make $750 per week. However, it doesn't always happen like that. The more the article is worth, the harder it is to write. Therefore, the $15 articles may take you a lot longer than an article you would be throwing together for $5.

Being a content writer is a numbers game. In order to be successful, you need to know how much money you would like to make each week. Then simply divide that amount by the amount you are paid per article. This will tell you how many articles need completed each week, in order to make your goal. Divide that amount by the number of days you want to work each week and you'll know how many articles will need completed each day. If your number turns out to be feasible, then you shouldn't have a problem being a successful content writer. In order to succeed, you simply need to set a goal and a schedule, then stick with it!

It's That Time of Year Again!

2009-08-24T15:54:00.002-04:00

Okay, so nobody ever told me that working at home would be easy. There are aspects of it that I really love and some things I could do without. The one thing I have had to face recently though, is the girls being home from school for summer vacation. One of the things I was looking forward to the most when I transitioned into working at home full time was the fact that the girls no longer had to be in daycare. What I didn't realize is that these two girls take up A LOT of time! Over the summer, I seem to have gotten nothing done!

Tomorrow morning this changes. As I put the girls on the school bus, I will once again be able to make an income we can live off of! I'm excited about this and look forward to the change in schedule. Next year, I know what to expect with them home all summer and can prepare accordingly. For now though, I'm excited! It's time for school to start, not just for them but for me too!

I decided to work towards my BA in English and am taking a freelance writing class this quarter. I'm excited to share everything I learn with you all. (Especially since I will now have time to blog again!) For those of you who don't know yet, I am also signing up to be a Scentsy consultant! I'm very excited about this new venture and will be having a HUGE online launch party full of discounts and prizes. (Follow me on Twitter to learn more!) I am also starting a new blog to help those who want to work at home. It will focus on various opportunities available online and offline. Hopefully, it will be a huge success and people will be able to work at home themselves!

What are you looking forward to this fall?

Writing, a Full Time Income or a Hobby

2009-08-06T12:18:00.003-04:00

As some of you know, I have decided to go back to school. Originally the plan was to go to nursing school so that I would have a back up plan in case I failed at writing. The more I thought about it though, I realized that I have been writing for over a year now! Granted there have been some rough patches, (and being a single mom they are super rough!) but we got through it. I still plan to go back to school, but I've changed to an English major and decided to take classes that will make me a better writer. (I need to work on my grammar, bad!) In light of this, I decided to list what I have found to be the pros and cons of a career as a freelance writer. Hopefully, it will help some other people decide whether writing is a career or a hobby for them.

Pros:

One of the biggest pros for me is the fact that I can work from home and not send the girls to daycare. I enjoy being there for them when they need me and love the fact that I'm not paying someone to raise my girls. I also like the fact that I can work whenever I want. I always hated having a set schedule and with freelance writing I can easily decide whether or not I feel like working that day. Granted if you NEVER feel like working, you will NEVER make any money, but I don't have to schedule appointments around a job, I can schedule my work around my appointments. I also love the fact that I pretty much control my income. If I need more money, I simply write more articles. It's way better than waiting for a yearly raise to come around.

Cons:

Just like with any other job, there are bad parts to freelance writing as well. For me probably the biggest problem is trying to work with the kids home. There are days that it just doesn't get done and this summer has been really hard on us. However, having them home outweighs my lack of current income, by far. Another problem with freelance writing is when you are looking for work. There are times I can spend a whole day just applying to work on projects. It can be time consuming and as a freelance writer, you are not getting paid unless you are writing. The last thing for me is health insurance. I miss being able to pay $25 when I took the girls to the doctor. While I have purchased health insurance for them, the health insurance I had from work was MUCH better! Luckily, they are past the age where they need a lot of shots so we aren't at the doctor nearly as much!

What about you? What are your pros and cons? Do you write full time or is it a hobby?

Suite 101

2009-07-29T13:33:00.003-04:00

I know we've talked about passive income and if it's worth it to write articles only for residuals before and I wanted to give you all an update on my experience with Suite 101. When I was in Florida, I told you all I would be posting my passive income earning each month so that we can get an idea of whether or not it's worth the time spent and I plan on adding that to my sidebar later today.

Suite 101 is a passive income site similar to sites like eHow. They pay their writers by ad revenue, meaning that when someone reads an article you write and then clicks on an ad on the page, you earn money. I personally have to say that I am seeing more income from Suite 101 than I ever have from eHow, Bukisa, or Associated Content. I currently have 10 articles posted (2 of which were just posted this week) and my July income is at $9.94. Not a lot, I know, but when you compare that to my income a eHow where I have 37 articles posted and a July earnings of $9.21, I'm thinking that Suite 101 will be more worth my time than eHow.

Plus, with Suite 101, you aren't limited to writing How-to articles, which I like. While How-to articles are fine, I find that I enjoy writing different styles of articles and I like having that option. I will continue to write for both sites however, so that we can get a good comparison and see how fast I can grow a decent passive income!

Have You Tried Online Tutoring?

2009-07-29T13:17:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure if I mentioned to you guys that I am going back to school! (I'm taking a freelance writing class that I can't wait to share with you guys!) In addition to me going back to school, it's almost time for the kids to start school. This will mean a lot of homework around our house! The one thing we can use is free Online algebra help!

The problem with homework is that I suck at math! I actually have to take two developmental math classes before I can begin my normal classes. For me, the fact that I have the option to use an Online algebra tutor is amazing. Believe me, I'm going to need it.

So, I recently found a company called Tutor Vista. They offer online tutoring for grades k-12 as well as college tutoring. I immediately found myself an algebra tutor and the great thing is they are able to give me the algebra help I need 24 hours a day 7 days a week! In addition to algebra tutoring, they also have algebra 2 help. Although, I don't know that I'll make it that far in my college math classes, since it's not required. I am very excited though, not only can I use a little online tutoring, but the girls will be able to excel academically because of it!

Today is the Day for Demand Studios!

2009-07-29T12:39:00.002-04:00

Awhile back Demand Studios promised to reveal the writer ratings to the writers and today is the day the rating will be unveiled. I have heard various opinions from writers about how they feel about being able to see their personal rating.

Some writers are nervous. They are concerned that they are doing worse than they thought and they will have a lot to work on. Others just don't care because it doesn't effect how much they are paid per article. Personally, I'm excited. Not only do we get to see how we score, but it will give us an idea of what things we, as writers, need to work on. It may not effect how much we are paid per article, but I think it's a good tool that we can use to help better ourselves. In the long run, the things we improve on may just be the skills we needed to land the higher paying jobs.

What's your opinion?

Finding Private Clients

2009-07-27T23:37:00.002-04:00

One of the biggest questions I hear writers ask is, "Where do you find private clients?" After all, content sites are great because there is always work to choose from, but private clients have a lot of benefits. While there are plenty of places online you can find private clients (craigslist, bidding sites, and writing job boards) one of the best places to look is in your local area.

Create a package to mail to places in your area like advertising agencies or graphic design companies offering your services. Advertising agencies and graphic design companies frequently use freelance writers for a variety of reasons and marketing your services to them can easily land you a client or two. Any business that needs sales materials or even brochures written can also use your services. Take some time to research how to write and effective sales letter and include a few samples or your work.

After you mail or email your packets, you should give a follow up call. Normally, a good rule of thumb is to wait a week or so before calling. You'll want to make sure the company received your packet and then simply discuss it with them. Let them know the reasons they need you as a writer. Highlight your strengths as you talk to them and make sure you tell them how your services can benefit their specific company.

Don't get discouraged by the "nos." Not every company will want your services, but don't be scared of rejection. All they can say is, "no" and if they do, it will be politely. As long as you are determined and have a little patience, you should be able to land your first private client in no time!

I'm Back!

2009-07-18T21:24:00.002-04:00

I wanted to stop in and tell everyone that I'm back from vacation! We had a great time in Florida and on the way home I thought of some exciting topics for new posts! I know everyone will enjoy them!

Me and the girls have spent the first pat of the weekend visiting with friends and trying to settle back in the house. On Monday, I will be writing in full swing and that includes new blog posts and the releases of my new blogs! I'm very excited and hope you all check back Monday to see what's in store for Am I Really a Writer? See you then!

Promote Your Articles in 5 Minutes Per Day!

2009-07-06T20:11:00.002-04:00

Promoting your articles can be a full time job on its own, but it doesn't have to be. For the freelance writer that concentrates on passive writing, it can benefit you to promote your work, especially if you are a new writer trying to build an online reputation. Most websites make it simple to promote your articles, but you can also use some of the various social networking sites as well.

Twitter is a great way to promote new articles you have written. You simply send a "tweet" with the link to the article to all of your Twitter followers. Not only does this give you the potential for a good amount of people to view your work, but if they like the article they may re-tweet the post to their followers as well.

You can also post links to your articles on Myspace and Facebook. Some websites, like eHow, give you the option to automatically post the article to Facebook. There are also options on many sites to create a personalized widget. This widget can be pasted onto your Myspace pages and even blogs to keep people updated with your latest articles.

If your articles are well keyworded, you shouldn't have to spend a lot of time promoting your own work. Google constantly crawls the web looking for keywords in articles. If your article is properly keyworded, you can easily rank in the top 10 for searches. However, it does take some time to build a good reputation and learn all the ins and outs of getting your articles placed high on the search engines. Promoting your own work is important, but it doesn't have to take you more than 5 minutes per day!

What ways do you promote your articles?

Multiple Sources of Income....

2009-07-05T20:24:00.002-04:00

As a freelance writer it's important not to keep all of your eggs in one basket. Why? The answer is simple. Even though you may have a great client that pays you weekly for your work, that client may not always be around. If you don't have other streams of income it could really hurt you in the long run. Preparing yourself for tough times is an important part of making it as a writer, but how do you ensure you have enough work for the future while keeping up with the workload of today?

The first thing you should always remember is to set time aside each week to look for new opportunities. Even if it's two or three times a week, at least you are keeping your options open and are aware of what is available in the writing market. As you find new jobs or land new clients, set your schedule accordingly. Private clients aren't easy to land, so you should always put the jobs you have for them before anything you can pick up on a content site. The content sites should come next because you'll need the upfront pay in order to make ends meet, but you can't leave out the passive income sites either. Try to take a few hours each week to post articles at passive income sites.

The longer you write or a living you will be able to decide which areas of writing are more important to you. There's no right or wrong answer here. There are many freelance writers that put a lot more effort into passive writing sites because they can build a lucrative monthly income that doesn't require a ton of work to be done each day. Ultimately, how ever you decide to grow your writing business is up to you, but you should always make sure you have money coming in from multiple places, that way if the worst comes you'll be prepared and can still be a success!

Do you have multiple streams of income? If so, how do you manage your daily work load?

Are Passive Income Websites Really Worth it?

2009-07-02T19:08:00.002-04:00

A lot of people question if passive income sites are really worth their time and effort and it's something I struggle with as well. I have articles listed at eHow, Bukisa, and Suite101, but find myself wondering if it's really worth my time. Some people have been extremely successful with eHow and continue to be on a monthly basis. I am not one of them. Tha's not because the site is a bad site to work with by any means. It's simply because I'm too lazy to keep up with it.

I recently found Suite101 when I read some information that some of the ladies there are making around $1400 per month with a little over 100 articles. I applied and decided to see how it went. Since I only have 8 articles and have only been with them for one month I only made a little over $8, but I have to say that was almost double my eHow earnings for the month with 36 articles. I think that passive income is worth the effort. it's somethign that will continue to pay you each month even when you aren't busting your chops typing away at the keyboard all the time, that's why I have decided to build on the passive income sites. I didn't add it to my goals this month, simply because I planned on writing this post.

Here's the plan: For the month of July I will be commiting myself to writing 3 articles a week at both eHow and Suite101. I will keep a running tally of my earnings and post them here weekly as I post my updated weekly goals. We'll be able to tell if I start concentrating on it if the passive writing will pay off!

There are various passive income sites out there, which is your favorite and why?

July Goals!

2009-07-01T17:44:00.002-04:00

Well I have been VERY off track posting on this blog, as well as creating the new one I have planned. For those of you who don't know, I'm in FLORIDA at the beach! While I have been working, it's been very here and there so unfortunately my blogs have been extremely neglected. I will be giving them more attention though, and will be back home by mid-month.

Goals this month are fairly simple and since I am away for half the month, I will be working my way up to them. I hope to be hitting them fairly consistantly by the end of the month.

1. Demand Studios: Since this is my number 1 money maker lately I want to TRY to write 50 articles per week. It's not unusual for me to write 7 days a week so it shouldn't be hard.

2. Suite 101: For me this has pretty much replace eHow, simply because in the one month I've been with them I've doubled what I made on eHoe. (more on this tomorrow) For July I want to post 3 articles per week to Suite 101 because I plan to apply for a featured writer position soon.

3. Quality Gal: I haven't written much for them lately , but would love to commit to 5t articles per week.

My goal is to work my way back up to hitting the $1000 mark per week. When I first quit my job, I started out strong and I guess burnt myself out. These ast couple of months have been super slow going. Fear not though, coming to the beach has done me A LOT of good and I'm back on track! Stay tuned for some exciting articles this week, including tomorrow's article about passive income sites!

What are your goals this month???

A Summer Unorganized!

2009-06-16T18:44:00.002-04:00

Wow, time is flying by and I can't seem to keep up with anything lately! I have been writing a lot for Demand these days. I am loving the changes they made to their que. If you haven't seen them make sure to log on and check it out. Previously you had a limit to the amount of articles you could claim and write at one time. Once you wrote your articles, you had to wait for the editorial team to approve them in order for you to claim more articles. The changes made it possible for you to claim more articles as soon as you write them. This means a lot more work and a lot more money! They have been keeping my fingers busy!

Besides writing for Demand, I've still been dabbling occasionally at Quality Gal and Just Articles. I need to make some goals to get on the bidding sites and land some jobs outside of the content sites, but with them keeping me busy plus my new Thirty One business I just haven;t had the time. (By the way hop on over to my Thirty One blog and check out how my Thirty One business is going!) I have also recently started a blog called Undomestic Me. It's not quite ready to be released yet, but it will be soon so keep watching. Hopefully, this one will keep you guys laughing!

In addition to the madness going on, I have also decided to start yet another business venture with a company called Scentsy. (More on that later as I won't be beginning that until July) I am also going back to school this fall. I'll be attending a small college here part time to obtain my nursing license. I've always had it in the back of my mind and I think now that I'm able to work at home full time, I should go back to school. I'll be going three days a week starting in September and working my other businesses when I'm not at school. Writing will always be a major priority for me because it brings in a decent income and works well around my schedule.

Enough about the craziness in my likfe though, what's going on with you all?

Should You Have a Specialty?

2009-06-09T19:21:00.003-04:00

There is an opinion that writers who specialize in a certain area of writing make more money than general freelance writers. Other opinions differ, arguing that writers who don't have a specialty can cover more types of writing assignments than those who specialize in one area.

In their own way everyone has a specialty. Most people like to write what they know in order to avoid any lengthy research times. However, it's not always possible to locate projects that are within your range of knowledge. Some people may develop a specialty over time. If you write a series of articles in a specific field you may end up labeled with a specialty you never thought you'd have.

In order to complete projects in a timely manner, people who don't have a certain specialty need to have a wide range of knowledge in different areas. Especially content writers because you never know what Internet jobs will entail. The bottom line is, if you have a specialty you can charge higher prices on jobs in your area of expertise, but a specialty is not required to make it as a freelance writer. Specialists can do well, but there are plenty of jobs out there that general writers can complete. As long as you are determined you can make as a freelance writer. The projects are out there and with a little determination you can find them.

What do you think? Do you have a specialty?

How to Effectively Conduct Internet Research

2009-06-05T18:09:00.003-04:00

Face it, probably 90% of a writers work is research. It's not possible to know everything, but you have to ba able to write about anything, so writers do A LOT of research. Research can be time consuming, unless you know how to conduct an effective search that brings you good results. Knowing tips and tricks about Google can save you more time than you may realize.

First, the advance search can be your best friend. Next to the search box there is a link that says "advance search." Clicking on it brings you to a search page with more fields. This page allows you to search an entire phrase or even a few keywords.

Another trick that can help you is knowing what to type in. Especially, if you are working on an article that requires link be embedded. Companies don't want just any link. They want links that provide good solid information. To help narrow down your options you can easily search by typing like this:

site:.gov search phrase
site:.edu search phrase
site:.k12 search phrase

By typing the word "site:" then typing the .gov, .edu, or .org Google will search for pages with that extension. Therefore, you are able to find authoritative links faster.

What tricks do you use to complete your research fast?

Writing Resumes!

2009-05-31T22:37:00.004-04:00

Resumes are an important part to being a freelance writer. Being able to sell yourself and play up your strengths is a must if you want to work. There is a lot of web content writing work out there, but there is also a lot of competition and a lot of very talented writers. If you have been wondering how to write your "writing resume" or how it should look, Willow over at Freelance Home Writer has some great tips and an resume example for you to use! Make sure you check it out and then edit your resume to make sure you are selling your services properly!

Where to Find Photos....

2009-05-27T19:08:00.002-04:00

The other day I discussed raising limits at Demand Studios. One of the things I stated I was going to try was adding pictures to my articles. While this hasn't worked, yet, it did prompt a lot of questions. Where to get photos to use and how to use them with articles are some of the questions I was asked, so I thought I would answer them here so I could share with all of you.

Where to get photos?

As you know, you can't just use any photo you find on the web. Some photos are licensed or have a copywrite or you have to pay for them. There are many online sites that will offer you royalty free photos for a price. However, you don't want to pay for a photo that you are using for a n article, what's the point in that? The two best sites I have found to find photos are Stock.Xchng and Wikimedia Commons. There are millions of pictures available for anyone's use on these two sites.

How do I Use the Photos?

You have to first make sure the license on the photo means you can freely use it. Look for the link that shows how the picture is licensed and read through it. It will tell you what you can use the photo for. You must also give credit to the photographer by listing their name under the picture.

Ideas? Opinions? Any sites you want to share?

Sumertime Fever!

2009-05-26T14:43:00.002-04:00

Everyone feels the effects of the summer. Whether you work in an office or you work at home, if you're like me summer makes you lazy when it comes to work. Recently, I have found myself struggling more and more to stay focused. The beautiful weather is calling my name. I should be outside enjoying life instead of sitting at the laptop typing away. The problem with giving in to the beautiful weather is that it greatly effects the money situation.

I've been thinking about this problem, while struggling to stay focused and forcing myself to work. I've come to realize that I may never stick to a strict schedule. I don't think I'm programmed that way! However, I have found some things that are helping me get the work done and still allowing me to catch some rays!

1. Work in the Morning: I'm not a morning person by any means, but I have found that if I'm up early and get in a couple of hours of writing, I don't feel so bad about wasting the days away in the summer sun.

2. Make a to do List: Making a To-Do List is a big thing for me. If I have a list of things that need done each day, I know that I need to finish them before I play. (This also encourages me to get out of bed in the morning)

3. Work Late at Night: I probably get the most of my work done between 9pm and midnight. For me this means I can spend the day with the girls and do whatever else needs done.

I know I struggle with schedules regardless of the weather, but the summer seems to be worse! What do you do to stay focused when it's super nice out?