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

The Rules of Freelancing #3: Save, Save, Save!

I'm talking about money here. Freelancers and the IRS have a complicated relationship. Every year, my tax forms keep growing in size, whether I've had a good year or not. Saving money not only for those estimated tax payments but also for an emergency fund is key to maintaining your sanity.

This rule I follow as much as I can, but when I have a lot of money, I usually decide to go and do a grownup thing, like buy a car. I bought my little yellow bug a year ago (with a hefty down payment that dwindled the savings account), and by November 2011 I had lost a great gig. I didn't find steady work again until March, and during that little hiatus, I was sick twice, which added to the bills and now the savings account is just above empty. I'm now in financial convalescence in the guest room at my parents' home instead of my two-bedroom apartment. Or New York. Or any other place I could imagine myself living it up without my parents asking me when I'm coming home.

Take from me, although I find a few certain television financial TV experts annoying, when they say have an emergency fund, DO IT.






Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
 

**Bonus Tip: Don't Count on It
This may seem harsh, but until that money is in your bank account, don't count on ever seeing it. A lot of freelancers have to deal with delayed or nonpayment of services. Make sure you aren't paying your bills with the idea of getting paid on time.

If you need my example of the crazier things that can happen with money in this business, two weeks ago I finished a job, but because of circumstances out of my control, I found out I may have to wait up to 60 days OR MORE to get my money for completing the project. Unfortunately, I was counting on that money to pay bills because the project was through a site where payment is guaranteed, but at the discretion of the client's timetable—and the website gives the client a pretty big timetable. Instead, I had to work 12-15 days in the last week with companies I already knew would pay me on time to make up for what I thought was going to be a nice paycheck. Guess I'll get a surprise two months from now.