Taxes, Payments and Everything I Don't Want to Deal With

Taxes are frustrating. Not necessarily having to pay them, but forgetting to submit a new W-9 every time I change my address (which is a lot). But the clever people at the website I rely on for a majority of my income decided not to remind me to change my W-9 until last week. That's all well and good. I'll send you a new one. However, because I was such a bad little writer my payments are being suspended until they receive it. Um... this W-9 is for last year's earnings, not this year. Why suspend 2013 payment? Really. Luckily it's happening during the 10 days I don't have to see bills in my mailbox, but still... it's really annoying when this could have been taken care of months ago.

I don't know what is up with Triond either. This is the place that many of my articles are published, but for now I'm suspending submitting any articles to the website, as well as any promotion I was doing. The reason? A significant drop of earnings (the dreaded CPM) and no explanation. I didn't become aware of it until this last week when I finally published two articles that got hundreds of hits without much promotion and noticed that I didn't start making a penny until the hit count was over 125. Now, six months ago I would have earned a penny starting at 15 hits.

I know we're simply talking pennies here, and I'm not making much more than $0.50 a month, but for the last two months my normal amount of hits hasn't even reached the $0.50 payout. I'm not even sure that anyone got paid in January, though because I didn't meet the payout requirements I knew I wouldn't get paid. The problem I have is that there is no explanation from the management of the site. In the help section, these questions are being asked by others, but either being ignored or deleted.

If the CPM doesn't at least raise back up to where it was before, I may have no other choice than to move my articles, stories and poetry somewhere else. And now that will be much more difficult because they have the dreaded "previously published" label which many other sites similar to the way Triond works will not take them. So, the new article listed at the bottom is officially my last submission to Triond until things look better or I find a site that will give me the the CPM price they promise.

New Articles:
Why Branding is an Investment and Not an Expense

A Modest Milestone

I've manage to achieve a new badge at Triond: I have officially published 200 pieces of media. It's mostly articles, but there are also a few pictures sprinkled in that number. Now all I have to do is work on my page view badge... only 11,822 impressions left (as of writing this) to get to the next badge. That one might take awhile.

I'm hoping to reach a few more writing milestones by the end of the year. My bucket list (yes, I have one) does include getting 10 pieces published by 30. I have just under two years to get seven more pieces into some type of publication. Payment-schmayment. I'll take free publicity at this point. But this feels like my year, so I'll keep plugging away. I hope you all are doing the same!

New Articles:
Essential Hydraulic Power Supplies
Women's Leather Handbags Buying Guide

Made It!

I did it, and with nearly a week to spare: I finished my 10 articles for Triond this month and will now reap the 20% they are offering. Here are the rest of the articles I published, in case you're interested:

Key Terms for Dance Equipment
Football Equipment Glossary
Simulation Software Glossary
E-Business Glossary

The rest of the weekend was spent working as hard as I could. I bought some new things for myself so I needed to make up for what I spent, but I think it will be well worth the cost, because I pre-ordered the new red Wii. My excuse was that I hadn't bought a game system since the original Xbox (which I still use from time to time) and that Wii is great for exercise. The nephew has one, and I played last week with him. It made my arms sore for two days, so I know it's worth it just for that.

This week will be a little more mellow. I'm starting to prepare for nanowrimo. I have a very short outline of the story I want to write. I also have a schedule down that will permit me to get work done without sacrificing time for the novel. I may be up a at four in the morning every night, but I will win this year. I will!

Plans for Nanowrimo

I'm usually pretty good at doing the things I say that I'm going to do, but I had a slight fail on Monday. Sunday night I tweeted (to those who follow me @Terri84) that I would share my ideas for this year's nanowrimo competition, but I didn't. So here it goes.



First, my method: everyday gives a chance for the spark of an idea, so instead of stopping everything to work on each new idea, I put down on a sticky note (or whatever scrap of paper is available) and shove it in my Ideas box (see picture). Each year when nanowrimo comes around, I simply close my eyes, pick out a scrap and do what it says. Sometimes it's a short outline of a story. Sometimes it's just a title. On a few occasions, it has been nothing more than a quote from someone else's story that I somehow thought was inspiring. This year, it was a title and one line description of the story. I don't want to give away the plot just yet, so I won't share the description, but the tentative title is "Gideon's Roadmap." I always get frustrated at title time, so I'm really glad that I have provided myself one upfront.

To get a little more business out of the way, you can also be my Nano buddy. I've never had one, because it's really hard to talk people into this endeavor when the only prize is the satisfaction of accomplishment.

Another little bit of business: I'm closer to reaching the Triond monthly bonus. Here are some of the other articles I have post since Monday:

Key Terms for Nondisclosure Agreements
Boat Builders Glossary

And if you write really fast, you have until the end of October to get in 10 articles for your 20% revenue bonus. Think about it. :)

Let's Begin the Week

This weekend felt like a huge waste of time. Although I got some things done, it wasn't nearly all I wanted to accomplish. I went shopping, bought some great shoes, but I didn't necessarily find all of the Christmas presents I had left on my list (yes... I definitely shop early for Christmas!). When I came back home, I was too tired to do anything else, so I tried to clear out my DVR. I'm so obsessed with recording things, it fills up pretty quick these days. Sunday was pretty much the same--I didn't get my cleaning all done, but at least nothing's messy. Just a little dusty.

What I really wanted to get a jump on was my Triond articles for this month. Like August, they are offering a bonus. October's bonus is 20% earnings, but this time it's 10 articles instead of 5. As long as I get them done this week, I'll have no problems collecting my bonus at the end of the month. I only wish I hadn't published my article, Four Easy Ways to Make Cash Online, on the last day of September...

There has been only small progress on any of my other writing endeavors. And I nearly freaked this week when someone mentioned that Nanowrimo is just around the corner. But I did come up with a new idea to mix my photographs with my words... stay tuned for that one.

Have a great week and remember to keep writing!

Sunday news you can use

… okay, maybe not. But I have been working as much as I can in between infestations of carpenter ants. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't run across my keyboard and stuff. But I feel good knowing that they are probably damaging the walls (I rent – not my problem!). They've taken Sunday off, I guess because I've been able to work all afternoon without interruption.

I spent most of yesterday packing up the office. I don't know why I bothered to unpack some of that stuff in the first place. All I did was clutter up my closet for nine months, then put it right back in a box. I promised myself I would sort through it all first, but I had my mom and dad helping tape the boxes and they were on a schedule... so I guess I'll have to sort it at my next destination.

It actually reminds me of a poem I wrote about moving. I'm not sure if I ever finished, but if I did I might be inclined to share it. And speaking of sharing... does anyone publish pictures at Triond? I've noticed that my picture make very little money compared to anything else. I don't know if I have the wrong keywords to get them noticed, or if its just that the ads on Picable pay less. Anyone have an idea?

Okay, back to work. I want to earn a bonus next weekend: no work for 48 hours!

Well, I have been advertising all of my work at Triond on manual surfs and autosurfs today. It's really a hassle, but it makes me money and technically, it's still considered a writing gig. I think I'll add all of those links on my blog too, just in case you are somewhat interested in seeing any of it (it's not really that spectacular, but it makes me money). Whatever. I'm bored. And I need to get the laundry out of the dryer. I'm out...

I have always took the advice that you should apply to more than one job at a time because it gets a faster return . Maybe I shouldn't have taken that advice. I'm a little swamped with work now, from articles about Norwegian car hires to natural remedies to quiz writing. Plus, I've been writing articles for Triond so that I can make a little more spare cash. And I've added another blog to my list of hobbies, but I'm not launching that until March and hopefully that one will generate a little cash. If not, I can always put a donation button on the sidebar (kidding! but people really do that... I've seen it).

I'm writing for pennies, and my fiction is suffering for the sake of rent for March. But, I did find out that my script was picked for the CEC project. That was really good news to have. Finally, something happening with something that I wrote! Now to get that darn fiction published...