Bubblews Changes Its Redemption Amount

I have been a Bubblews member now since mid-August...4 months almost exactly to the day. I have enjoyed my time there, in spite of a lot of the negativity on the internet about Bubblews. Before I started, I read about a lot of writers that weren't getting paid there. I decided to take my chances and give it a try anyway. I have had a very good experience there, getting paid 4 out of the 5 times I redeemed, and the one I didn't get paid for was a glitch that I believe was outside of Bubblews control. But now, Bubblews has up the amount needed from $25 to $50. When I first heard about it, I was not happy. It seems to take me a long time to get to that $25 threshold, and now having to reach $50 before payout makes seems to have taken a bit of the wind out of my sails. I am still committed to being an active member on the site, but feel I will have to work harder to keep myself motivated enough to write on there enough to keep the money coming in. They say it will be a good thing for Bubblews members to have to hit $50 before redeeming because that gives the staff more time to check into things and connect with Bubblews members. I have a better understanding of the change now, and I hope it works out for the good for all concerned. Are any of you Bubblews members? What do you think of the change in the redemption amount?

My Earnings For November, 2013

It's been awhile since I have posted on this blog. Sorry, I will try to do better because I do enjoy it so. But I have been very busy selling items on Ebay and spending time writing on the Bubblews website. I was doing great on WebAnswers for awhile, but it went down and had no ads on it for about 1/2 the month of November, so I am sure I lost earnings because of that. I wanted to give my monthly update of earnings from writing online. I enjoy doing it because it keeps me motivated to keep doing better each month to try to beat the earnings from the month before. Here is how much I earned: Google Adsense, from a combination of 2 blogs, WebAnswers, and some residual income from HubPages:$68.93...Bubblews income: $30.23 ( I could have earned more but when I tried to redeem once for $27, I got a Gateway error message so apparently the site had gone down when I tried to redeem and I think that redemption is lost for good)...and $13.84 from HubPages, which also includes Ebay earnings from that site. That is a total of: $113.00 for November, 2013. As always, I hope to beat that amount this month. I really want to have a banner month writing because it is the last month of the year, and my last chance to boost the income I have made this year before I total it all up. My original goal was to triple what I earned last year from writing. Last year I earned $520. After looking at what I have earned so far, I won't be able to triple that, but am working on at least doubling it.

My Writing Earnings for the Past Four Months

The other day I was writing an article for Bubblews about how much money I earned during the month of October. I realized I hadn't updated things here in awhile so, I wanted to catch everyone up to date. I have the totals for my earnings over the past 4 months. I am earning more money from writing now on a monthly basis than I was over the summer when I was writing full time, even though I have been subbing almost daily. That is good news for how things will go next summer when I again can write full time. I think the reason I am doing so much better is due to all the experiments and research I did over the summer about the best sites to write for. I am sure there are others out there, but for now, I am very happy with the earnings I get from HubPages ( well, this could be better, but at least I am earning something there each month), this blog and my blog about Second Marriage Romance, Bubblews, and WebAnswers. Here are my earnings for the past 4 months: July: $80.60........August: $108.18........September:$114.19 plus $150 that I earned interviewing clients and writing up descriptions of their accomplishments for a program for a non-profit agency..........October: $89.83 (this was in 19 days as I was away and didn't have internet access for 12 days in October) That is a total of $542.80 for 4 months worth of work. Things are looking up in terms of my writing earnings. Will I make my $1,500 goal for 2013? No, but in four months I have already beaten last year's earnings of $521 so I am encouraged for the future. And I am having a ball being able to write every day!

I Found Work That I Love So I Never Have To Work A Day in My Life!

Well, that's what Confucius said anyway!His actual statement goes like this, 'Find work that you love and you won't have to work a day in your life." My husband and I recently were away on a trip and I had no access to the internet for twelve days. Let me tell you, those were twelve very long days. And I missed being able to write online. I still wrote, every day actually, like clockwork. I wrote about all we saw while we were away. I wrote about museums we visited and customs of the people around us. I wrote about the food we ate and experiences we had. But because I could not post it to the internet and share my writing, it felt like something was missing. All Summer long, I wrote and posted my writing on the internet on a daily basis. And I loved checking in weekly to see how much I earned from my hard work. The frustrating thing about not being able to access the internet was that I was not earning much since I couldn't publish anything. Well, actually because I am really crazy about tracking my earnings, I did find that over the course of 12 days, I had earned a whopping total of $16.51 in residual income. That figure is based on my posts on Bubblews, answers on WebAnswers, writing on HubPages, this blog and one other. I guess you might call that an okay return because while I was earning it, I wasn't actually doing any work as the earnings were based on work I had previously done. But when I can actively access the internet and publish my work daily, my earnings increase substantially. So, I am back, and ready to roll. I have already answered 4 questions on WebAnswers, posted 3 Bubbles, and am going to post a new hub that I wrote over vacation later today. I am having so much fun, that I know I have discovered work that I love, so if Confucius is right, from now on, I won't have to work a day in my life...once I am earning enough money from writing that I can give up my day job that is!

Catching Up

Wow, it has been quite some time since I posted here. And there is a reason for that. I calculated how much I earned during my summer of writing experiment and it was pretty dismal. I have been avoiding reporting my results because they are embarrassing. My whopping total of earnings I have made during the 10 weeks of my summer of writing experiment was: da da da da...( drum roll please) $208.81. That is quite a far cry from my original goal of $1,250.00 But I must say that while I didn't earn a lot of money, I did gain more knowledge will which help me to earn in the future. I discovered that having a blog helps keep me reaching toward my writing goals. That said, I am definitely going to keep up with this blog so that I can keep writing an reporting my results to all of you...and that in itself will keep me motivated so I don't embarrass myself anymore. I have also discovered two new websites (Bubblews and WebAnswers) both of which are bringing me more money on a daily basis than I was earning anywhere else on the web. So, moving forward into the Fall, I am confident that I will earn more in the next few months with my writing than I did over the 10 weeks of my experiment. Thanks for sticking with me through my 10 week experiment, and I hope you will continue to stick with me as I reach for a full time writing career.

Loving the Earnings at WebAnswers and Bubblews

Thankfully the WebAnswers glitch was fixed. Whew! It was down for 4 days with no ads and I was quite sad. But I kept popping in over there and answering questions and I am glad I did. It has been fixed and was down for only 4 days. The first few days it was back on I was making mega bucks and was so happy. Because of WebAnswers, I will now be getting a check from Google Adsense at the end of September. I have been trying to earn enough to reach my $100 payout since my last payout in July of 2012, but between my 2 blogs and HubPages, the earnings were very slow to grow. Thanks to WebAnswers, I have actually earned enough for a check. Yay!...I was so annoyed with the lack of available titles for me on Textbroker that I haven't even been on there for awhile. I'm too busy on WebAnswers and Bubblews earning money in a way I really enjoy. And I am earning money on both. While WebAnswers requires well thought out answers to questions posed on the website using at least 100 words, Bubblews accepts postings of a minimum of 400 characters which is wonderful. Much easier than writing a full fledged, detailed hub,I can get smaller articles written and published much more quickly on Bubblews. So those 2 sites are where I spend most of my time lately. And I am earning money at both. Of course I will never give up HubPages. It's my online first love so I am there for the duration. But branching out also has its advantages too!

WebAnswers Glitch

If any of you are members of WebAnswers, then you are in the same boat as I am in this, the 4th day of the disappointing no ads glitch that WebAnswers is experiencing. Most people don't really know what's going on. Apparently at this point though it looks like Google Adsense has pulled all ads due to a break in the AdSense rules by WebAnsers. People on there are saying that they get messages from the administration that ads will be back on soon, but it looks like it is going to take awhile. I only hope it comes back. I was doing so well on there financially. And I really had fun answering as well as asking questions. Oh well, I will continue to be optimistic for the future. At least I have Bubblews to concentrate on now. Just another hiccup on my road to writing full time!

I am Now a Bubblews Member!

After giving it much thought and research, I have decided to join Bubblews. I have done a lot of research about it and wasn't sure about joining because a lot of members say they didn't get paid. Apparently, they broke the rules and didn't get paid, but no one from Bubblews will tell them the rules that they broke. But it's so easy to join and earn money I couldn't not give it a chance. They only require that you have a minimum of 400 characters in your posts...yes that does say characters my friends, not WORDS...400 characters! Way too cool. I finally decided to bite the bullet and jump in when a very sweet lady from HubPages (Victoria Lynn) wrote a hub about Bubblews explaining it in detail and how she was earning money quite quickly. I looked at the list of rules and it seems quite easy to not break any. Some of them I wouldn't even know how to do because I am not all that great at adding links and such. So that won't be a problem for me. I wrote one Bubble last night before going to bed. When I woke up this morning I had already earned over $1.00. Hmmm, that seemed pretty easy. Some people are reaching payout in their very first week, although they must be writing an awful lot. Some have gotten paid, and some haven't. One of the best things about Bubblews is that you only need to earn $25 before getting paid. That's pretty cool, and a lot quicker than the $50 payout required for HubPages, and the $100 payout needed for Google Adsense. But it's not as quick as the $10 payout required for TextBroker. They are all so different but it's quite fun learning how to write for each these different types of sites. It's all a learning experience, I will certainly say that! I will make sure to report back when I reach payout and will let you know if I get paid. I am still extremely happy with my results from WebAsnwers. That site ranks right up there with HubPages for me now, but is actually earning me more money in my second month there than I am earning with HubPages. The traffic and my earnings have slowed WAY down at HubPages this Summer. I hope it picks up in the Fall. Happy writing to you all!

Addicted to Webanswers!!!

I can't believe how addicted to WebAnswers I have become. I can't help it. It's the easiest way of earning money online that I have found since January, 2012 when I first started writing online for HubPages. I still love Hub[ages but I am earning more money on WebAnswers, with less work! It seems that the work available to me on Textbroker has really dried up. Most days when I have gone on the Textbroker website this week, there is absolutely nothing available to me at my level. I have never seen that before. In a way, that lack of work has forced me to WebAnswers because I can always find questions to answer there, and it is less time consuming, even when I write very detailed answers. Plus, there's no time limit at WebAnswers so it's not like on Textbroker where you accept a job and have only 24 hours to complete it. So, this week, even though I had a goal of finding 3 articles to write on Textbroker, I am okay with no0t reaching that goal ( there wasn't anything available) because I have made up for it on WebAnswers. My goal on WebAnswers is to answer 6 questions a day from Monday through Friday, and then whatever I can do on weekends is a bonus. When I go back to substitute teaching in the Fall, that will switch around and I will be answering most of my questions on WebAnswers on the weekend, and just squeezing in an answer or two a night as I can. I do wonder how that will affect my earnings there, but time will tell on that. I am also in the middle of a 30 hubs in 30 Days Challenge on HubPages, but am currently behind on that. I am trying not to get discouraged with HubPages because I am still making money there, but last summer, with a lot less hubs, I was earning twice as much as I am now earning there. I know, I know...you have to be in it for the long haul at HubPages but it can get discouraging when I am trying to write full time and only see dribs and drabs in earnings coming in from that site. At least it's coming in so I guess I shouldn't complain! If you are interested in checking out WebAnswers, the link to find it is here: http://www.webanswers.com/_5dkqa9eg

When Life Gets in the Way of Writing

Well, yesterday was a bust in terms of writing. My friend's 23 year old son who was in the Army was killed as a result of a freak gun accident and the funeral and memorial service were yesterday. It's 45 minutes from my house to the cemetery and another 30 minutes to the church where the memorial service was held. That took up most of my day. When I returned home, I was still pretty upset for my friend and for her son whose life was cut short. I just couldn't write so got absolutely nothing done yesterday.I totaled up my earnings for the first half of My Summer of Writing ( you can see a more detailed account of this in the chart on the My Summer Of Writing hub on HubPages), but for the purposes of this blog I will just state that my goal for the summer was $1,250 which means that I should be at $625 in earnings now, and am actually at $100.63. YUCK...a big fat YUCK. But I am learning a lot about myself and my writing style and know that copy writing, while it can pay the bills, is a real struggle for me. Although I like Textbroker because I can write and see immediate gratification from my work when the money for the article gets posted to my account within three days, it's a struggle for me to write about things like how to make your pick up truck more powerful, or metal roofs. Yes, I have written about these 2 subjects in the past week! And this morning when I went to the Textbroker site, I found there are actually no articles available on my writing level, nor the one below mine. I am going to instead work on querying magazines with articles I have already written, or that are in my head, HubPages, my blogs and Webanswers. When I have a bit of spare time,I'll just check in with Textbroker to pick something up sporadically. My husband does have a work trip next week and will be gone for four days so I imagine I will be able to get some good writing time in then. I guess it's all about balance. If I lose a day from yesterday, I have to remember to make up for that day another time. Tomorrow starts a new Hub Challenge for me on HubPages so I am hoping to put in some really good work/writing during the month of August.

Happy Every Morning

Each morning I wake up now and feel so happy that I have a full day of writing in front of me. It's such a gift to be able to have the time to be creative on a daily basis. On the days I have other things to do and can't get out of, I am disappointed. I try to schedule other activities at least for the afternoon so I can at least write in the mornings. It's amazing to me to wake up happy and looking forward to a good day almost every day because my day consists of hours of writing time. And this week marks only the half way mark. I am a blessed woman!

Here's my favorite place to be this summer...at the dining room table, writing, as my husband sits across from me and does his work on his own computer!

Bad Week Finanically, But Learning New Writing Skills

I am embarrassed to admit to you that my earnings dropped substantially this week down from $36 to $18.85. The biggest reason for that is that the Textbroker articles that were available to me were almost nil at my level. So depressing as I had a goal of earning more and more money each week. But because I am in Textbroker University with one lesson left, I have high hopes for the future. Actually after I complete this lesson, I have to write 10 articles before I can even be qualified for the next level. Even if I( don't qualify though, I am excited because taking these lessons will help me be a better writer. I have learned about putting too much fluff or "fillers" in my writing and how to avoid it, proper punctuation and pronouns, and am about to learn proper comma placement which is a huge issue for me. So I guess that's how to look on the bright side, in case I don't make it to the next level. I am really impressed with the earnings from WebAnsers though. It is really boosting my Google Adsense earnings and writing thorough answers is easier than writing a full hub on HubPages. My goal is to answer 5 questions per day on WebAnswers because I think it's similar to HubPages in terms of the more active you are, the better you do score wise and that increases visibility/earnings. Speaking of writing hubs, I am off to do one now, and looking forward to a very productive week of writing!

Textbroker University and Other Thoughts

I won't be able to update my earnings this week until tomorrow when all the results are tallied by the various sites I write for. But I must say I am struggling with Textbroker because there have been very few articles available for me to write this week. In fact all day yesterday, there were only 2 articles available to me, and they were both about subjects I have no knowledge on. Since the client specifically asked for someone with knowledge only to write those articles, I was not able to accept either assignment. The good news is that Friday, I received an email from Textbroker that offered me the chance to sign up for Textbroker University. This program consists of 10 lessons and is designed for people to move up from level 3 to level 4. That has my name written all over it. I did sign up, but so far, have only had a chance to take the first lesson. I have 9 more to go, and then have to write 10 articles for them before I can advance to the next level.At that level, there are usually thousands of assignments available, so there is more money to be made, at a higher rate of earnings. I plan to take the bulk of the lessons tonight when my husband is at a meeting and it will be just me and the dog here at home! She keeps me company when I write and is a very cute writing partner who lets me know when it is time to take a break and get out and get some fresh air! (Of course that really means she just wants to take a walk for her own purposes but I prefer to think she's urging me to take a break because my mind needs it!)

In the meantime, I have realized something very important over the past week: I need to stop looking at myself as a Substitute Teacher who writes on the side, and start thinking of myself as a Writer who substitute teaches on the side!!! I think that switch in my thinking will help me a lot, and get me to the point where that's what I REALLY am! I will be updating soon on my financial progress for last week....

Textbroker Pros and Cons

This is the beginning of my fourth week of writing full time. I have learned a lot along the way, discovered some new websites that I can potentially earn from, and am loving getting up every morning to write my heart out. The one website that consistently brings me the most money though is Textbroker. I have a love/hate relationship with Textbroker at this point. Textbroker is a website where people can apply, send in a article for review (on a Topic that TextBroker chooses) and then the writer must wait until Textbroker approves the article and assigns the writer a level. One can be at a level of 2,3,4, or 5 and one gets paid at the approved rate for that level. The higher level one makes it to, the more money one can earn. I believe that level 2 is .007 cents per word, and level 3 is 1 cent per word and I know level 4 is 1.7 per word. I believe only true professional writers make it to level 5 and I have no idea what they make. I was accepted 1 year ago as a level 3 writer, and have stayed there ever since. That means I make 1 cent per word for my articles. After every 5 accepted articles, the Textbroker editors review the writer's work, and then sends the writer emails with a score and corrections for each article. You can rise to a new level, or drop to a lower level, depending on the score of your articles. If I were to write 5 articles and they all scored a 4, then I would rise up to level 4. That hasn't happened. Every article I write stays at a level 3. So, while that's not the lowest level, it is a frustrating level. There are not as many articles available for level 3 writers as there are for level 4 writers. And that means I have fewer topics to choose from. Here are some examples of the types of articles I have written this past year: Write 30 creative titles for individual blog posts, Write an article about eco-friendly toys, write an article about this particular restaurant in San Franciso California (I live in Connecticut), write an article about this particular neighborhood of Washington state, write an article about the treatments of prostate cancer, write an article about photography on safari, write an article about Pit Bull dogs, write an article about hot water heaters, and more that are similar. For most of these articles you must include key words a certain number of times so that can be a bit frustrating. The person requesting the article can actually reject it, but I have written 79 articles so far in the past year, and fortunately have never had an article rejected. It's frustrating in that I can spend 1 hour researching something, then another hour writing the article, and I will get paid a whole $3.50 for it! Whoo hoo! Not a very good investment of my time, but so far this summer, Textbroker is where I am earning the most money. The biggest negatives about the site for me are not being able to make that much money for my time, and also not being able to pick topics that I enjoy writing about...... But the thing I like most about Textbroker is that I can write articles and actually get paid for what I write, not from views or ad clicks. This means people like my writing enough that they are willing to pay for it. And that feels good. It usually takes up to 3 days for an article to be accepted on Textbroker. Sometimes if something is written and sent in earlier than the time period allowed, articles get accepted right away, which is nice because it makes me feel good that the person paying me saw it and approved it right away. I have to force myself to go to this site daily because I want to earn money writing, but I very rarely am able to write about topics I am interested in. I love to check my account payoff amount because it does add up and each week I have been able to see money being deposited into my account. When I request a payout, the money gets transferred to my Paypal account. All one needs is to have $10 in their Textbroker account to receive a payout which means a writer can get paid more quickly from Textbroker than from most writing sites. I am hoping that I can rise up to level four before the end of the summer because that will increase my earnings. So, I am plugging along and always trying to stay optimistic that I will learn how to write more quickly, and that I will also move up to the next level with Textbroker. I do know one person that was a level 4 and was making $2,000 - $3,000 per month on Textbroker. She writes fast and was a higher level so I guess those are the goals I need to aspire to. If you have had experience with Textbroker, please leave a comment below!

Fly Baby, Fly...

I am feeling rather down today because I missed church due to a writing deadline. I had signed up to write an article at Textbroker and it was due today by 10:39 a.m. I finished it at 10:34 a.m., but that didn't leave me time to get ready for church and make it there for 11:00 a.m. I am disappointed that I didn't plan my time well enough to get it finished in time. Yet I was very motivated to complete this article because today is the last day I can earn any money to add to my weekly total earnings which I am going to publish. I must say that keeping this blog as well as updating my article on HubPages about My Summer of Writing is really helping me stay motivated to earn. I really don't want to be embarrassed about not being able to earn money at the writing career I am aspiring to. Of course I am nowhere near my goal of $125 per week yet, but I can see improvement and that also helps keep me motivated. I will really need to keep working on scheduling my time better so I can have a life as well as write. The funny thing is, I really just want to write. Since I started this writing experiment 3 weeks ago, I have found that all I want to do is write. If I could spend all my time writing, eating and sleeping when necessary, that would be fine with me. (Oops, sorry Honey if you are reading this!) I feel like a bird who has longed to fly and been kept in a cage all her life. Then someone opened the door to her cage and set her free and all she wants to do is fly. Fly Baby, fly!!! That's me...only for me, it's writing. I have been set free, and I am so happy to be writing!

My Writing Week in Review

Well, this won't be the blog entry where I tell you what I earned this week because technically my week won't end till Sunday and I want as much earning time as possible before I give my report. But in looking back at the week I have noticed a few things. The first is that now writing down my goals each day totally keeps me on track in terms of what I want to accomplish that day. Without it, I am floundering all over the place, jumping from one writing website to the next only settling down when the mood strikes. Imagine a butterfly flitting around from flower to flower, trying to decide which one has the best nectar and stopping at one only when it decides that. That would be me without a list of goals...so thanks very much to Bill Holland for sharing the suggestion of writing out a list of daily goals. Next, I have 2 ideas I think will really be worth following up on. One was a suggestion by my girlfriend who has commented on my writing and things I should write for agencies because my background is in social work, but I have a heart for those with disabilities. I once read an article where a new writer had business cards made up and sent them out with a letter on letterhead to over 200 networking connections he had made over the years. He ended up getting writing jobs from 4 of them just from that first letter, and five years later he still gets ongoing jobs from them. That sounds good to me because I do have a lot of connections from my previous jobs. So, Vistaprint, here I come...for 250 free business cards. If you don't know what I am talking about, www.vistaprint.com will give you 250 free business cards if you just pay shipping and handling. It's a great deal. Then I also had an idea for an ongoing series o0f articles on HubPages that I think will really be catchy, and from that, I may have enough material to publish a book. And I have also figured out how to buckle down and earn a bit more money on Textbroker, which will bring in the money on a regular basis as long as I keep writing there. It's not a lot of money, but it's still money I can earn each week, and it's grooming me to write copy for future sites and possibly agencies so I am grateful to have been able to start there for now. More on Textbroker later in the week, but now I need to go take my dog for a walk to get out of the house, and get motivated to come back and take a shower and do something besides write today. It's 2:55 p.m. and I am still in my P.J.s. which is making me feel quite lazy and disgusting just at the moment. There are pros and cons to be able to write from home! Here's a picture of my sweet dog and writing companion, who just happens to have her very favorite toy in her mouth... Reeses:

Shoot For The Moon!

It occurred to me today that in order to reach my goal that I have set for myself for the year in terms of writing hubs for HubPages, I need to have 52 hubs written during my Summer of Writing. This works out to a little more than 5 per week. So far, I am on week 3 and have written 17 hubs which I am happy with. Unfortunately I am behind for the year. I wrote 150 hubs during my first year on HubPages, which started in January, 2012. My goal for my second year was to publish 200 hubs, while continuing to work, so unfortunately I can't write full time. Except for these 10 weeks of Summer that is. So I have been wondering how I will feel if I don't reach my 350 goal by January of 2014. I am beginning to feel that maybe I am biting off more than I can chew with all these goals I have set for myself. I am thoroughly enjoying writing every day. In fact, the more I write, the more I want to write. My husband commented that when I am writing, I concentrate solely on that and am not aware of what is going on around me. I liked the sound of that. I have always heard that if you find a career that you totally love and it doesn't feel like work to you, then it's a career worth keeping. So, I have found it, but unfortunately, so far it doesn't look like I will be able to quit my day job! Not yet anyway. So, I will keep plodding along as best I can. I will continue my 10 week summer of writing full time. I will continue to keep working toward my goal of earning $125 per week at it. I will continue toward the goal of writing 200 hubs this year. And if I don't reach all of those goals? Hey, I am shooting for the moon so at least I should land among the stars instead of not trying and at all and slouching around on the earth whining about my life. I do set a lot of goals for myself but it's the only way I can move forward. And if I don't reach all my goals this year, at least I will be farther along than if I hadn't set any at all. And there's always next year! Okay, I am off now to work on my newest hub. I am including a picture I took on a trip to Bora Bora in the French Polynesian Islands, to remind me to shoot for the moon!

I'd Rather be Writing!

I'm sure you have seen those bumper stickers that start with, "I'd Rather Be..." and the things people would rather be doing run the gamut from anything to dancing to fishing. Well, I would like to get one that says I would rather be writing!!! The other day I was coming out of the grocery store, and remembering how much I used to love shopping and saving money with coupons. And then the phrase "I'd rather be writing" popped into my head! I do still enjoy grocery shopping and saving money with coupons, BUT I actually would rather be writing! I decided to start writing after 41 years of wanting to do it. And now it seems that I just can't stop the flow. And I don't want to.

I've overcome the embarrassment of the small amount of money I made last week. I have updated my article on HubPages with more exact details, but only made $9.31 last week. That's about 1/2 the $20.06 I made the week before, but I also went away for a few days to the Berkshires so as my daughter said to me, 'It's better than nothing." I guess it's true what they say about out of the minds of babes. She is 18 and I'm sure she would get a kick out of me calling her a babe because a "babe" at 18 is much different than the age that saying is referring to! But as she is my daughter, she'll always be my little girl.( Here we are last year!)

After reading another hub by Bill Holland ( Billybuc to those of you on HubPages) about finding the time to write, I am getting much more organized about my writing. Each day I am now making a list about what I want to accomplish. Unfortunately, I must be a slow writer because I only am writing about half of what's on my list. Or maybe I just have high expectations for myself? I want to write 4 Textbroker articles, 1 hub, answer 3 questions on WebAnswers, and also write at least one blog entry a day. That doesn't seem like a lot but the HubPages and Textbroker articles need research and that's what takes a long time. I need to figure out how to write more quickly once I get the research done. I also want to add one more writing platform, but I haven't figured out when I can find time to explore which one would be best for me. I am looking into Constant Content but I'm not sure I like the idea of writing 500 - 600 word articles that may just sit in my catalog and never get bought. Does it make more sense to just publish my articles on HubPages and at least I stand a chance to make money from views and ad clicks? I am also looking into Writer's Access but the application process seems overwhelming to me. If anyone reading this blog has any comments on either one of those sites, please feel free to leave them below.

Vacation is Over and It's Time to Reorganize my Writing

Well, my short vacation is over. I have gotten past feeling guilty about taking time off, and allowed myself to enjoy the time away. It was a good time to reconnect with my husband, and to listen to some beautiful classical music at Tanglewood. And picnics are always romantic so that was fun. Here's a picture of our table set up for a picnic at Tanglewood:

Now it's back to work tomorrow. I am refreshed and ready. Partially because I read a hub on HubPages written by someone else who is writing full time. I am inspired by his goals because he actually writes for 45 hours a week, 5 days at 9 hours per day, and doesn't let anyone interfere with his writing time. He also has a schedule that he prints out each day so he knows what he needs to accomplish. What a great idea. I do believe that's what I need to do as well. So, tomorrow is a new day and I will start my week fresh, and ready to commit to my full time writing with a new vigor.

Freelance Writing or Enjoy Some Vacation Time...That is The Question

Today my husband and I are in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. We got here to a great condo and are looking forward to 3 classical music concerts over the next 3 days at Tanglewood. I still am not sure what to do about my hours this week. I spent the day with him traveling up here ( it’s a 2.5 hour drive) and stayed away from my computer till about 9 p.m. I mentioned I had an article on Textbroker I needed to finish, and 2.5 hours later, I completed it, after checking in with Webanswers and HubPages, as well as my email account which is connected to HubPages. I could tell he was a bit frustrated with all my attention to the computer tonight because we are supposed to be on vacation I guess. So much so, that I am not going to write anymore articles with deadlines this week. I will probably do some blog entries ( uh, right, that’s what I am doing right now) and I would like to finish at least one hub of the 8 I have started. Then I think the rest of it will just have to fall by the wayside for the long weekend. I will have to consider this a vacation weekend and do that much better on my hours next week. One thing I am very happy about though is that I sent my Textbroker article in at 11:29 p.m. and I got up at 12:25 a.m. because I couldn’t sleep, and it had already been accepted. Wow, I have never had a Textbroker article been accepted that quickly. I guess they liked what they read about Rolex watches?! Until I wrote this article, I didn’t know much about them, and now I think having one would be kinda cool! It’s 1:10 a.m. and now that I was able tow rite this, I think I will try one more blog entry for my other blog, and then call it a night. Goodnight all!

Struggling With Finding the Time to Write

This week is going to be a real challenge for me in terms of accomplishing my goals of writing for 38 hours. Monday was a washout due to not sleeping hardly at all the night before, and the wake. Then yesterday I was only able to work for 3.5 hours due to a car appointment and doctor's appointment plus I had spent some time with my daughter. I was pretty shocked and dismayed when I actually totaled up the hours I had spent writing and it only came to 1/2 the seven hours I had originally planned for the day. The good news is that after 8 days on WebAnswers, I finally hit my 50 questions needed to monetize on that site just this morning. I should now be earning from there, and I was able to monetize here too this morning as well. Today is a banner day for getting things moving. Good thing too because tomorrow, my husband and I are leaving for a short 4 day vacation in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. We are going to 3 concerts at Tanglewood. We try to go every year to listen to classical music and have a picnic. We were not able to go at all last summer, and my husband loves this event so this year we were determined to make it. Here's a view from the grounds of Tanglewood in the Massachusetts Berkshire Mountains...

This is good for the 2 of us in terms of spending quality time together, but bad for my writing schedule. I will be able to use the experience for more inspiration for writing more articles on HubPages, and for writing in my blog about second marriage romance. But I don't think I will be able to write for 7 hours per day while we are away. Does that mean I will be missing 28 hours this week? Well, not exactly. I will bring my computer and probably write a bit at night before bed. But it does not bode well for a productive week since I am off to a slow start. How do people who work from home manage to keep up with their schedule when life intervenes? It's not like a regular job where you can take a paid vacation and not worry about putting in your 35 - 40 hours. When you work for yourself, if you don't work, you don't get paid. Yikes, this is definitely scary, but I am hoping that within a few more weeks I will be able to figure it all out and keep a regular schedule. If not, I won't be seeing any money from my summer of writing, and that will be heartbreaking for me. Stay tuned...

Yesterday Was a Washout

Tuesday, July 2nd Yesterday was a total washout. I had trouble sleeping Sunday night. In fact I would say that I only slightly dozed for 1 whole hour and that was between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. For health reasons that I don't think you really want to know the details of, I had a very uncomfortable and painful night Sunday night. I have never, ever been up all night like that and at first I thought that maybe I could just stay up and write, but I was in too much discomfort to concentrate.I had to take my daughter to the train station and hour away in the morning so I knew I wouldn't be able tow rite then. Once home, I showered and got ready for our afternoon/evening schedule. We had to go to a wake for a friend of ours at 5:00 p.m. and it was over an hour away. I had decided to bring my computer and do some writing on a Word document in the car. But because I was feeling better, I ended up sleeping all the way in the car. Oh well, good for my creative juices to get some rest I guess. Then we met a business associate of my husband's at a Dunkin Donuts for an hour and I got about 45 minutes of writing done there. And that was it for the whole day! By the time we were done at the wake, and went to dinner with some out of town friends that had also gone, and drove home ( I slept again because it was dark) I was so tired still that we got home by 11:00 p.m. and I was in bed by 11:15. The good news is I slept great last night and am ready to tackle as much writing as I can get in today. I will not lament the fact that I am already six and a quarter hours behind in my schedule for the week. But I am hopeful that I can add extra hours in here and there over the course of the week, and get the full 38 in. I am waiting for some results on statistics of my earning from Ebay before I post the results here. I hope the rest of my week is productive!

A Busy Weekend and a Break From Writing

Weekend 6/29-6/30... I was able to make up for the time I missed on Thursday by going to the wake, by working a bit extra here and there on Friday and Saturday. I have found myself addicted to this new vocation of mine. And have to pull myself away from the computer. I find if I am not writing, I want to be. At least I love what I am doing. All the more incentive to work harder at it. Well, actually, I think I need to work smarter, not exactly harder. I have been working at it pretty hard this week as it is. Yesterday was Saturday and my husband really anted to go on a picnic. I wanted to write and I had heard there may be thunderstorms in the afternoon. Since it was hot, muggy and with thunderstorm predictions, I asked him if we could go Sunday instead. I know he was disappointed. I wrote for 4 hours which helped me catch up on the missed time. Then I started feeling a bit caged in so I showered and took the dog for a walk and that helped. I think my husband is getting a bit frustrated with my writing taking up so much time.It has probably seemed like I have been on the computer all week. So, I had a glass of wine with him on the back porch before dinner and told him my writing was done for the week, except for an hour tomorrow when he goes to work out anyway. Today, which is Sunday, we did have a very nice picnic and took the dog for a hike and completed our hike just as it started to rain so it was perfect timing and a much cooler day. That all worked out wonderfully. Here are a few pictures from our hike at Gillette's Castle State Park:

I must say taking a break from writing and doing something so refreshing as a picnic and hike is good for a writer's inspiration! We took a nap together this afternoon, and he left to go work out without waking me up, thinking he was doing me a favor. I woke up after two hours groggy and disappointed that I missed my writing time. But he was gracious enough to leave me alone for about an hour so I could get my writing fix for the day. LOL…I need to get more disciplined on this schedule to keep us both happy! Tomorrow I will update this blog with the results of my first week!

Article Writing Involves Setting Priorities

Thursday, June 27th Today I got right down to writing right after breakfast and wrote for 45 minutes before I had to go to the wake. I got a good start on my article for Textbroker, which was about prostate cancer, and wrote half of it. As soon as I returned home I ate lunch and finished the article off, with about 20 minutes to spare…whew! Textbroker gives you a time limit and if you don’t complete the article within a certain amount of time, you lose your chance and the article is up for grabs again, but not available to the person who missed the deadline. I am not great with deadlines and would rather write just whatever I feel like writing, but right now, that’s not going to bring in much money. I answered a few more questions on WebAnswers. I am up to 15 now and I enjoy doing it. I just took a break and took the dog for a walk and am waiting for my husband to come home so we can go meet friends for dinner. I think my schedule will work as long as I stay flexible when other things come up at the times I have scheduled myself to write. I am anxious to see what the end of this week brings in terms of money I have actually made. I am still doing the 30 Hubs in 30 Days Challenge but haven’t even been on the site today. I will head back over to it when we come back…after I write my newest Textbroker article about a neighborhood in Alaska. I have to write a description about it for a real estate website. Off to dinner now. We didn’t get back from dinner till 8:45p.m. and I got settled in writing at nine. Logged in 2.5 hours tonight but only 5.25 for the day. I am lagging behind. I am also kicking myself because I worked most of that time finishing up a hub on HubPages about watching our children grow into mature young adults ( featuring my daughter Michaela) and I did publish it tonight so I am on number 14 and should be on number 27!!! But it feels good to have another one under my belt. And I also am pleased that I picked up 4 more followers on HubPages…that’s 12 in 2 days…wowza! I have had that happen before. I am really excited about that. Unfortunately because I worked on that, I didn’t have time to work on my Textbroker article about a certain neighborhood in Alaska. I did some research on it, but it’s due in by 2:00 p.m. tomorrow, and I am taking my daughter to an appointment first thing tomorrow and have no idea if I will even be back by 2. If not, I will miss another opportunity to make money. I have to get on the ball here and get my priorities straight. I think that means a certain amount of Textbroker articles each day before I can even head over to HubPages. Textbroer pays me by article, where HubPages is by view/ad clicks , so I can make more definite money per word for an article right now, than on views and ads on my Hubpages account. Such a bummer because I love HubPages too. Well, maybe reaching my daily quota of Textbroker articles before I can go to HubPages will give me incentive to get the higher paying work done first? I’m glad it’s only my first week at this! I was only able to work 5.25 hours today.

A Writing Schedule is Not Always Easy to Stick To!

Wednesday, June 26th Today started off well. I was excited to be writing early in the day and first thing I wrote an article about estate sales. If accepted, I will earn $3.25 for my hard work. When I was done, I chose another article to write about. This one is about prostate cancer, but I will work on it later. I answered another 2 questions today. If I can just take time each day, and answer 10 questions per day, I can be up to my 50 answers by the weekend. BUT the tough part of WebAnswers is in order to get paid for your answers, your answer needs to be chosen as the best answer. In order to be chosen, my answers will need to be at least 100 words, and a few paragraphs long. So it takes time. It is a challenge I am up to and I look forward to hitting the 50 questions mark. Some people on this site have answered over 1,000 questions so I am thinking they have probably been chosen as the best answer more than a few times. After my morning work was done, I got ready to go with my husband to meet my parents. We had planned a trip to a local historical museum called, Mystic Seaport in Mystic, CT . After that, we took them out to dinner. I was hoping to get home before my 8:00 start time to write again, but my Dad asked it they could come back to the house afterward because he needed help with his computer. Of course we said yes. We had a wonderful time but they didn’t leave till 9:30…this was 90 minutes into my writing time. I love my parents but I was chomping at the bit to get to my writing when they were here. And when we were together, they told me about a woman I know in my hometown who had passed away and the service is tomorrow morning.I know many of her children and I feel I really should go, but again this will cut into my writing time. Uh oh, sticking with this writing plan may be harder than I thought. My husband and parents at Mystic Seaport

After my parents left, I worked on a hub about watching our children grow into young adults, but haven’t finished it yet. One very exciting thing that has happened today is that I was wrong about thinking I may lose followers today after I published that hub about my success on HubPages. Instead, I have gained 8 new followers in one day. Wow, I am one very happy writer! Tomorrow is a new day. I am going to bed now at 11:30 p.m. after working for 6 hours instead of 7. I am short one hour and a bit worried about tomorrow, but maybe I can make up for it on the weekend.

A Variety of Freelance Writing Choices

Tuesday, June 25th Today I got up and went to Textbroker first thing. I was very happy to see there were over 200 topics for me to choose from…whew, what a relief. I was worried I would really be able to make any money this summer if Textbroker was a wash. While I won’t make a killing there, so far it has been my most lucrative way to earn money writing on the internet so far. But I am not a quick writer so it takes me awhile to research my topic and then write about it. But at least today there were some interesting topics. I wrote a blog entry about organic toys. If my article is accepted, I will earn $2.57 cents! Whoo hoo! But money is money and what I like about Textbroker is that I get paid for what I actually write, not for how many clicks I get next to my writing as on other sites. Before I went to bed, I accepted an article about estate sales. Now that’s more up my alley. I like choosing articles and then clicking to somewhere else to give myself a break before I have to write them. That’s why I often choose an article at night before going to bed, then I can start fresh the next day. I worked on a hub for HubPages about some milestones I have reached. I now have 600 followers…wow, that’s so exciting. I also got a notice last week that I have had over 100,000 views on my articles. That’s amazing to me. I am in the middle of a Hub Challenge I set for myself and some other hubbers. There are 3 of us doing this. And so far, I am the farthest behind. But I set it up for a month when I would still be working for the first 2 weeks, then my mom had surgery and I went to see her every night after work. The following week I had surgery…what was I thinking??? I guess I always think I am capable of more than I really am. Oh well, I guess I’ve always been an overachiever. The hub I wrote tonight was one I was really happy with by the time I was done. It quoted how many followers I have, and that my hubber score was 100. I almost shut down my computer tonight but then realized I needed to publish it tonight before I went to bed because those statistics can change at any moment. My score could drop, or some of the followers might decide not to follow me anymore. So I needed to publish it in real time before things changed. I am hoping people don’t think I am bragging about my success. I don’t mean to, but I am just happy about my success on the HubPages website. I have been having a lot of fun answering questions on WebAnswers. This site lets you answer questions and once you answer 50 questions, you can start earning money. If your answer is chosen as the best answer by the person who asked the question, you will earn money when people view the questions and click on the ads next to the answer. So far I have answered ten questions and I asked my own question about whether or not there is a limit to how many questions I can answer in one day. I will get answers soon I hope. I don’t want to be penalized for answering too many questions on one day. But if there isn’t a limit, I can reach the 50 answers pretty quickly, and then maybe start earning money which will add to the money I am making with HubPages and Textbroker to reach my goal. I worked for 7.25 hours today and I loved it.

My First Day of Full Time Writing

Monday, June 24th, 2013 Well, today is my first day of writing full time. I have a schedule all set up…4 hours in the morning, a break to spend time with my husband who works from home, and to rest, and work out,eat dinner and then 3 hours each night. Plus I am planning on working 3 hours on Saturdays. My first attempt to find good paying work was at the website Textbroker.com I have written for them for about 1 year now, but only a total of 65 articles. I have done it when I had a chance. Unfortunately, I get tripped up with commas and I am at a level 3 over there. So when I logged on this morning I was very disappointed. At my writing level there were only 37 articles available, and nothing I could find that I would really be able to write about. Some of the article subjects are very boring or would take too much time to research and aren’t worth the $3.00 they offer. So, I am resigned to not writing anything there today and hoping to have better options tomorrow. I went back to HubPages, my favorite writing venue at the moment. I worked on a hub and will have it published by the end of the day. I also started researching other websites to write for. I think I should have started this research and already applied before I started this experiment because now I am going crazy trying to find at least one other site to write for this summer. I am looking into Elance, WebAnswers, Writer’s Access, and ContentBLVD. Some of them, like Writer’s Access seems a bit scary because the application process from what I have read is very long and involved and then I may not be accepted. But WebAnswers looks good, and fun so that will be what I start with first. I researched it and started answering questions there. And I know I am getting a bit carried away with all this writing, but I also have ideas for 3 new blogs!!! Crazy I know but I can earn money from them and at this juncture of my writing experiment I need to diversify my writing as much as possible. I wrote/researched for 7 hours today and followed the schedule I had set up. Yay!!!

My Adventure in Writing

I am a writer for the HubPages website and recently published an article ( or hub as they call them) about my summer of writing. I wrote this article as a challenge to myself. Having wanted to be a writer since I was 10 years old, I never got up the nerve to actually write anything for the world to see until I was 51 years old. 51 years old…let me repeat that. That was a very long time to wait. But once I found the HubPages website, I have been writing nonstop for 17 months! This will be the Summer I attempt to write full time to see if I can really make a living at my chosen profession. I am a social worker by training, but writing has been my passion since I was young. People told me I couldn’t make a living as a writer, and I foolishly believed them. This blog will be an account, sometimes daily, and sometimes weekly, of my struggle to follow my dream. I did not call this blog “My Summer of Writing” because for one thing, that’s the name of my article on Hubpages, and for a second thing, I am hoping that this experiment will be so successful, that my season will end up stretching over many years. And so, here I go…I am off to explore my chances of writing for a living, starting in this last week of June, 2013. Feel free to come along for the ride.