Last week's goals and a break.

So, I basically met none of last week's goals.

I have nothing money-wise going on until the 6th of October, so I'm gonna let this site rest for a week or so. It seems the only things I ever have to write about here are "I have x,y,z goals. I failed to meet any of them", and about not having money. Not much to write about there. Honestly, I don't think anyone wants to read about "I have $6 in the bank, and no gas in the car." It gets old, right?

So I'm setting 1 goal for me between now and next Wednesday. It's super easy.

I have a pill I have to take every day. My goal is to actually take that pill *every day*.

Oh, yeah, and when I get the crazy urge to work, I need to try to actually *work*, not talk myself out of it by opening a new book, doing laundry, or cooking something. When my brain says "work", I need to at least *try* to listen.

But that one's not so much a "this week" goal, more a lifetime-type goal.

So yeah, taking a break here. I'll be back on the 6th. Or maybe the 8th.

tomorrow

too sleepy today

Blogging Dollars

So I got paid by my blogging network-thing. It's not a huge amount of money (just over the payout, in fact...), but it's mine! (cue evil laughter)

By check, of course. I guess I got the paypal request/ info in too late.

In other news, I'm trying to decide what direction to go with my travel site... direct paid ads, adsense, affiliates... it doesn't make much difference to the content, but it might change the layout a bit. I don't have to decide now, but I'd like some idea of what direction I'm going to take it in before I get too far into it.

So... yeah.

Still deciding if I should stay with the ad network or not... There isn't much ad inventory now, and I don't know if it's worth it to follow their rules and whatnot when I could make the same (or more...) with Google.

This internet stuff is tough.

Ok, back to writing crappy content articles for next to nothing.

Dear Santa...

I've been a very good girl this year, if you ignore the whole quitting my job, moving across the country thing. And the not getting a new job thing. And the ongoing depression, borrowing money, and not paying all my bills stuff (oops, didn't I mention that last one? Hello, more student loan forbearance).

But I haven't killed anyone, or physically robbed any banks, or forced my attentions on anyone. That counts as good, I think.

This year for (insert random winter holiday here) I'd like quiet roommates. Or no roommates. And if I *do* end up spending more than one month of next year in this state/ country, could that quiet home please be in a place where I can walk to stuff, like cafes and shops, and the library, and parks and things?

Alternately, the motivation to get that stuff on my own would work. Or a huge pile of coal to sell might pay for it....

Mi casa es muy loud. srsly. Forking boys.

Goals for Sept 20-27

This is super late today, I know. My sister's car broke down (fixed now, finally) so I've been ferrying her about, and spent a good part of the day with my mom.

Last Week-

Last week I actually got some stuff done, which is kinda surprising to me, 'cause I spent most of the week getting used to shiny new medicine. Which is doing what it's supposed to--motivation crawled up from around a -2 last Monday to a current high of 3 (yay). I also now accept that I need caffeine to work. Without it I get *nothing* done, with it I at least do *something*.

Last week I managed (kinda) 3 goals. I came in short (very short) on all writing goals. I did, however, manage to:

1. Drink water,
2. Go to my appointments, and
3. Do research on other blog/ site ideas.

I also played too much farmville (losing interest again, *finally*) and stared at the ceiling a lot.

This Week-

So it turns out that you aren't actually a writer unless you write. I've got the drinking water thing down now, meetings and whatnot are under control, and research without action (or pay) is really just play. So this week's goals are:

1. Get blog posts up on time every day.
2. Write 300 words each, every day, for textbroker, Constant Content (spec) articles, my travel website, and a fun fiction project.
3. Work on HoboTraveller's 200 word list for Spanish, then expand it with other words I already know. Add 10 "new" words a day.

That's it. I *should* be able to manage all of those. 300 (1200) words a day is possible, even if it's pure crap. My Spanish listening is much better than my speaking, and my reading a bit better than that, so for now I'm trying to figure out where I am with all that and bring it together.

Oh, and one other "goal"- No TV until I hit my minimum word count for the day.

That look a bit more manageable? I think it does, anyway.

Internet Business is Srs Business

You don't really think about it when you put ads on that first blog (at least, I didn't), but you're starting a business. I don't think about my food blog as a business, I think of it as practice, but it's still a (hobby) business. And that means there's all kinds of stuff I need to know.

So I went to the library yesterday and picked up a pile of books on starting a business, and women in small business, and bookkeeping and stuff. It's answering some of my questions, but for every answer--or part answer--I find, I come up with three more questions.

There's always the SBA, and Charleston has another group just for women starting businesses, but this is *not* a tech center and most of those are traditional businesses. So I'm not sure how much help they'd be when most of my really *wanna know* questions are solidly online business-based. Questions like:

If I sell ads directly instead of using a network for everything, is it a sale? Is it a sales tax-type sale? Do I need a DBA for my blog name? And what about business licenses?

I don't know, maybe the local small business groups *could* help. The books sure are, but not with the internet bit, and I've no interest in buying a "everything you wanted to know about blogging and taxes" ebook. I probably need to figure out other businesses that do similar things, and find out how *they* do it. Something like the local free newspaper, or those newsletters you find in coffee shops with ads down the sides.

I have a strange suspicion that this stuff is why people hire lawyers and accountants when they have *real* businesses. Hopefully hobby status gets a girl some leeway. I don't wanna end up in jail or owing piles in back taxes just because I didn't know better.

Payment Day, But No Payment

So... I held off on this one, giving them a chance. I'm sure there's some reasonable reason for me not getting my paypal-ed dollars today from the ad network I use on teh other blog, but forked if I can figure out what it is. It's totally possible that they're sending me a check, having missed the bit where I decided (about 2 months ago, now) to skip the waiting and just use the electronic transfer-ness.

Which kinda sucked, since I had an appointment to go to, and not enough gas money for a round trip. And not enough money to pay for the appointment. (I did make it, BTW)

Magic Dad to the rescue.

Which makes me feel like crap, of course, and if I were able to be motivated right now, the idea of never calling him for money again would do it. Too bad motivation = 0 right now.

Anyway, he loaned me some more money, and I'm adding it to the list. I think I owe him about $4,000 right now. Wrote down what I remember and added it all up while I was waiting earlier today. That's almost 7 times the cost of my car. It's more than my smallest student loan.

So it feels like crap, but I'm glad he's there. And I think he likes being able to help without dealing with anything messy, and getting to pester me about what kind of late-retirement he expects. Looks like the state home is out. Oh wells.

Now if only the forking ad network would pay me....

Goals for Sept 13-19

First, let me just say, wow, I suck at meeting goals.

So I drank water. And I Looked at camcorders. What I didn't do? Meet writing goals at TB, write anything for CC, outline or write the first chapter for the novel contest. I don't even know what I'm writing about for it yet, and the deadline is next Wednesday. Yikes.

This week, then. "Easy" goals first:

• 2 hours writing for TB, even if it's only one article, every day.
• Drink water
• go to my appointments

Medium goals:

• 1 article for CC
• get travel site set up, write text for homepage.
• Do research for other site/ blog ideas- keywords, competition, perks, etc.

Stretchy/ reachy goals:

• Write chapter for New Voices competition
• Write $500 worth of articles for TB
• Spend 1/2 hour a day on learning spanish
• Write "pages" information plus 5 articles for travel site

I think that looks good. I *can* do all my easy goals, though one will take more work. I should be able to do at least 2 of my medium goals, and I'm shooting for at least 1/2 of one of my stretchy/ reachy goals. It's like a goal within a goal. Oh well, one thing at a time, right?

Interesting money stuff

So, I have no ads here. I did at one point, but I decided to pull them from this blog.

The other one, though, has ads. And they were doing pretty good for a while, and I changed to a new ad network thingy. It lost me the more profitable adsense space, but it brings in traffic (mostly) and was earning more.

I don't know what's up, but September seems to be a crap month for advertising. It's probably better on family or child-centered blogs, but food and general life crap? I'm making more (and have *made* more) on the much less profitable adsense placement than I am off my big pretty hot-spot ad.

Part of it, I suspect, is due to some kinda blogger flub. But mostly? There's no ad inventory. something like 2/3rds of my page loads have been PSA's or in-house ads. that's 2/3rds of my pageloads earning either nothing or almost nothing. It's kinda a startling change.

Good thing I don't live off that revenue, I'd starve to death. Ok, I'd starve to death faster.

It does help me realize that if/ when I get everything going with web sites and whatnot, I need to make sure that money can come in from more than one place. There *are* ad networks that will fill in with ads from other networks when they have nothing to serve, but this isn't one of them.

It really reinforces the whole "diversify" thing. Lucky for me the blog is for fun and keeping track, or I'd be forked. I think about this more than i probably should, actually. With building a working-for-myself type life I am running into this more.

I probably ran into it more when I was working for a company in a "real" job, but when your ability to pay rent depends on kissing the boss' ass and behaving in public, you try not to think about that stuff. Now I'm trying to build as many different streams of income as I can find. Every dollar that comes from blogging, or book reviews, or a website I build, or an article that sells at CC is 100 fewer words I have to write for textbroker. Forget saving the earth, I just want to save my wrists at this point.

Now I just need to get the novelling going so I can earn real, live royalties. Write once and get paid for it forever (or until the book pirates get their hands on it... either one works for me).

But, yeah, oddness with the advertising income this month.

Working Too Much?

Someone told me recently that I work too much. Or maybe it was that I don't have enough fun.

I spend a lot of time *trying* to work, I'll go along with that. Actually working? Nowhere near enough. I do a lot of goofing off, spend more time than I should picking projects, and not enough actually doing what I should. I haven't started my contest project yet, never quite got around to writing that article I challenged my friend to write, and I don't have anything going right now at TB.

So while I spend a lot of time at the computer or alone, I don't work all that much. Which, of course, needs to change. Can't pay the bills if you don't work, right? And the list of things I need to do just gets longer, as does the list of bills I have to pay.

Once I get some kind of actual rhythm going, and work actually starts getting *done* during work time, I'll be all over having fun. I'll snag my golf clubs back from mom's shed, fill the gas tank, and go out and have fun.

Until then, though, it's try to work until I actually *do* time.

No fun, that- all the frustration, none of the dollars.

Goals for Sept 6 - Sept 12

First, a quick update on last week's goals. So far I really only managed part of one of my goals last week. I drank lots of water, but not quite 3 bottles a day. I have until the end of the day today to get an article to CC for the challenge I have going with a friend, so that one isn't quite done yet.

This week!

Holiday weekends are slow at textbroker for finding articles- weekend writers get an extra day to work and clients seem to take the weekend off. A few articles have been loaded in the last couple days, but no where near as many as are being written.

So Goals!

• Write 4 hours at TB every day, or until I earn $30, which ever happens first. I think this will take some of the pressure off me to have "ZOMG millions!" by the end of every day.
• Come up with at least 5 article ideas for CC, and write one of them.
• Outline (vaguely) a story idea for HM&B's New voices comp.
• Write rough first chapter (~4k words) for contest by Thursday. No editing/ fixing this week.
• Compare cameras/ camcorders for trip, build list of possibles, collect prices.
• Water!

I think that will do. It's a boat load of work, but at least half the "work" is fun stuff.

Interesting Problem

So, I need proof of income. I don't have a "job", so I don't have paystubs. I don't make what I did last year, so a copy of my tax return isn't going to work (duh). I quit my job rather than getting laid off or downsized, or whatever random wording they're using this week, so no unemployment benefits or record.

I guess I could print out the last month of my bank records, but the only real money in there came from my father. With a print out of my last month's paypal, that might work, right? I just need something. Blargh.

Proving you have income is easier- if you have a bank account, you just show them that shiny balance, or the line with the deposits, or whatever. I'll have to wait until next January for 1099's, and I think that might be a bit too late. Yargh. broke-ness. Sometimes a job would be easier, just not by enough to make up for the pleh-ness.

Crazy Flat-out Working Time, Again

You'd think I'd time my work-flow better. You'd think I'd fight off the demon writer's block faster. You'd think I'd try harder for (much) better paying Direct Orders.

But no. I put it off and put it off, and do one here, and two there, and then run around, headless-chicken style and totally broke the week before pay-outs. So that's what I'm doing today and most of tomorrow. Well, the part of tomorrow that isn't spent getting Dad from the airport and dropping him off at home. So flat-out working, followed by more super-speedy work, followed by my "challenge" article for the better paying site. Basically, I'm working most hours I'm awake between now and Labor Day.

It's going to be a long, exhausting week. Well, what's left of it.

Luckily, though, I *know* I can write 3 300 word articles in an hour. So I'm starting by challenging myself to write $10 worth of articles and turn them in each hour. Then, if I make that, I'll bump it up 50 cents or a dollar each hour until I either can't do it, or it just gets silly. I think, by the end of the day, I can be pushing out $15 an hour. I bet I can, even.

Now I just have to go do it. Drat this strange need I have for living inside!

One plus, though- I actually got something done on my local-type website. at this rate it should be up and running by the time I'm 50.