Motivated on Monday

I didn't wake up with the alarm clock... but it was close today. As soon I as I put on the tea kettle to boil for my morning coffee (I'm from a 1940's noir--I drink instant) I got right to work. 150-word article out of the way before the kettle started screaming. I lined up a couple more similar articles for later in the day. While this won't make a huge dent in anything, I do feel like I'm finally back to work full swing.

I'm still looking for a job outside the home because things are getting a little desperate in the money category. My bank had the nerve to charge me a $5 service charge because I didn't have enough transactions. When you don't have a lot of money, there probably won't be enough transactions!

I also wrote two poems last week that I wanted to debut today, but since I sent them to the Yahoo Contributor Network, I guess I have to wait until both are approved. And of course I also have a complaint about YCN... I guess I didn't log in for 90 days, which is strange because Yahoo keeps me logged in automatically. But, I'll take their word for it that I didn't visit the page for that long. Anyway, they have cut of my performance views to count for the overall performance payments. From what I understand, these should have resume as soon as I started visiting the site again, but I don't think they have. I have zeros across the board and it upsets me because I would have never promoted the articles last week if I knew I wasn't going to get paid for them. But I have my queries into the forum, so we will see what I can find out about that.

What free time I do have left in the day I spend on promotion. Most of what I do is drops on Entrecard (which is also on my list--they tell me my book review blog doesn't have a widget--and it's right there for all to see) and I'm back to the traffic exchange game. I never realized before how truly sad traffic exchanges are. 99% of the pages I view are people advertising other traffic exchanges, MLM schemes or other get-rich-quick junk. I like to think I class up the joint a bit by promoting my blogs. I would love to promote my articles directly, but that's against every terms of service at every article website, so I have to hope that people will engage my blog after they see it. It's usually a statistic of one in a million, but it's still relatively free advertising, so I'll stick to it for now.

Just A Little Entrecarder Rant

99% of you are great, and I really appreciate the Entrecard system as a whole. Before, I don’t think a single person visited my blog on a daily basis. So what’s my beef? It’s the whole paid ad controversy. Personally, what’s wrong with paid ads? If a blogger is considering cashing out their credits when that is available, why not help boost income for the company? I accept paid ads on Entrecard. The only time I reject an ad is if there are multiple requests for the same ad back to back. I take the first one and reject the rest until the next day.

And my problem isn’t even with those that do not want to accept paid ads. If that’s the way you feel, then by all means keep your Entrecard ad-free. But when I see blogs that are arguing to never accept paid ads, and then BUY ads to put on other Entrecard widgets, I get a little ticked. Anyone ever heard of hypocrisy? If you refuse to accept paid ads and even go as far as to recommend to others not to accept paid ads, then you should not be buying paid ads for your own blog. That’s just ridiculous! Yet, because I am trying to be as fair as possible, chances are I’ll still accept your paid ad for my widget. All I ask is this – take a look at what kind of message you are sending.

Okay – rant is over!

New articles, new outlook

I just published two new articles on eHow. If your into spring cleaning and want to take this time to go green in your home, check out How to Spring Clean Green. If you live in an apartment, get tips on How to Spring Clean an Apartment.

And I have already found out that this new schedule needs some tweaking. I all of my surfing (+ Entrecard drops!) and research is easier to complete in the morning. Articles are easier to write in the afternoons. It's a small change, but I think it's going to work out much better for productivity. And you can't make money as a freelancer without productivity!! But the good news is that my new job has rated my work so far, and I'm still doing well. I expected that, but with all the doubts I had recently, it was a nice thing to hear.

277 Miles update: I've been editing the manuscript during my lunch hour, and I have 5 of 12 chapters line edited so far. I'm hoping to finish the editing off this weekend and start working on the revising part of it all.

And before I forget: I had a huge blogroll on this blog for awhile, but when I made changes on it a few weeks ago, it accidentally disappeared. So if you were on that blogroll, or if you just want to join it now, I would be more than happy to exchange links.

Working it all out

I'm back to editing my work now, which is still as frustrating as usual, but at least I'll be getting all of the bad stuff out of the way to start over. And for the rest of the month, I'm going to try a new schedule that permits me time for my normal work (which had to be cut back anyway), time to promote and enhance my blog, and also time for my actual novels, stories, and poems. I'm going to try this schedule just for the rest of March to see if it works. If it doesn't, boy will I have to be making some changes in my life.

I'm also getting used to all the features at Entrecard. I've found so many great blogs just from going around and dropping cards. This might mean carving more time out of the day to read blogs than I already do now. But it's fun. I like how blogs let you get very personal, yet still allow a type of safe distance. Perfect for a person that can't really handle social situations.

I really wish I felt like working today, but after a little more than two days away from any real work, I'm getting kind of lazy. But this afternoon is the last time to lounge around. After my edits tonight, I will be off to choose the neglected novel I finished last summer. It's a first draft, nowhere near the length a novel is supposed to be, but since it's the longest work I have completed, that's the one I think I'm going to start with. Once I dig it out of the files on my USB key, I give some more updates on it.

Hope everyone else enjoys their Friday evening!

Entrecard

My blog is now a part of Entrecard. And to be honest, I'm still not sure how it works over there, but I'm going to take some time tonight (in between Bones and ER, of course!) to learn how everything works.