Thirteen Things about ME! Thirteen Reasons to Read My Blog! 1. Wholesome entertainment and information. Yes, ladies and gentlemen no unhealthy rated 'X' material here... 2. Good tips on how to be a beginning writer. However, if you want to move up to intermediate or expert look for another role model. 3. I'll read your blog. 4. Many thanks and good karma will come your way. 5. I'll put a link to your blog at the bottom of one of my posts. 6. To feel a vague sense of mild amusement at meager attempts. 7. To find that perfect writer you've been looking for... 8. I'm sure there's more reasons. 9. To fill in that time period between the news and prime time television? 10. To say that you did read something today. 11. Find out what the competition is doing. 12. For some inspiration. 13. Occasionally, just occasionally you might find something useful. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. The Bluest Butterfly That was absolutely hilarious. :-) 2. Lucky Lady Hi, I'm new at this so I'm looking around at other peoples.

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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13 Excuses for Missing My Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about Me! 1. I had low blood sugar yesterday and forgot. 2. I fell asleep at the wheel. 3. My teddy bear ate my laptop. 4. I had a really big project to finish up. 5. Now I'm really in the money so I just don't care. (right...) 6. I had an emergency de-pantsing disaster to deal with... 7. Carpal tunnel hit me at just the right moment. 8. The Internet in the entire town died at 12:01 A.M. Thursday and didn't come back up until now. 9. I thought it was Friday Thirteen, rather than Thursday Thirteen. 10. On that note, I thought it was still Wednesday. 11. I've developed amnesia and had to relearn how to type. 12. I traded bodies with an ourangatang living the circus life in Southeast florida and haven't had the chance to get to a computer until now. 13. What's Thursday Thirteen? Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

New Blogs for a Client

Just started up two blogs for a new client on the benefits of seawater. They're meant to promote the client's product by spreading internet awareness as it were. If you want to check up on the blogs and see how they are doing. You can visit the Benefits of Seawater and All About Seawater Therapy.

If this works out it will also be a regular gig, Yay!, which can bring in income every month.

The Exorcist and Earning a Writing Wage

I just went through a bit of a lean period and was actually close to opening that emergancy bag of dried split peas we keep in the cupboard. Luckily, a few clients paid up and I avoided the dreaded Split Pea Soup. I just can't eat that stuff, its because of that scene from The Exorcist movie. You know the one where she vomits up all this green Split Pea soup. Uggh. I also have a thing about Spagetti, but that's a different post.

Working Wages
Just a week ago while I was going through this slump I sat down and decided what I needed to earn each day, month and year to meet my goal for this year of only $12,000-which is about a few thousand dollars more than I scraped together last year.

I would need to earn $50 a day for twenty days out of each month to earn $1,000 a month to get Ta Da! $12,000 at the end of the year. That's not so hard, right?

Weeelll, maybe it is a little bit. I'm still only making about .02 to .03 cents a word. On a 500 word article I should earn about $10. Okay, good. On most of my web content articles of that length I'm bringing in $12 per article. Still way below the recommended .10 cents a word minimum by those guys over at Six Figure Writers but still higher than $10.

But! I have to write 4-5 of those articles just to meet my $50 minimum for the day. That's about 2,500 words a day just to make less than minimum wage. Honestly, sometimes its hard to make myself sit down to write all that when I think about the low wages.

Once again I have shown to myself potent evidence that forces me to start looking for a higher paying section of the online market. There must be better paying online gigs out there, somewhere...

Just for Fun
I sat down and figured out what I'd need to earn per word to make varying amounts per year.

To earn $120,000 a year I'd need to bring in about .16-.20 cents a word and type about 60,000 words a month or the equivalent of 3,000 words a day 5 days a week at that price. Lot of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, but not completely unattainable. Hey, I'd be writing the equivalent of a short novel every month!

To earn a comfortable $40,000 a year I'd need to bring in about .10 cents a word and type only 1,500 words a day. Much more comfortable and I'm only doing that 20 days out of the month. In other words I'd be making $165 a day or $3,300 a month. Obviously, to earn a $120,000 a year I'd have to make $10,000 a month!

13 Tips for Good WebCopy-Thursday 13

Thirteen Things about Me! Another Thursday 13 post. I'm so not getting to this blog like I should. If you've been working on your web copy but still haven't quite figured it out yet. Here are 13 tips to good copy: 1. Tight writing. That doesn't mean bad or easy writing. 2. Copy of about 600-800 words is better for SEO and catching the long tail of search. 3. Title – Subject – Support, in that order, like subject, verb, object. 4. Titles should be snappy and informative – clickable, but clear. 5. Leads (first sentence or paragraph) should get to the point. Tell the reader what the article's about first thing. 6. No fancy, wordy intros where it's not clear what you're talking about. 7. Information beats fluff every time. Pretty is for books and newspapers (and only sometimes). 8. Information does not beat style every time. Style keeps people awake. 9. Sans serif fonts are easier and faster to read on computer screens. 10. White space is awesome – even better than big, pretty pictures. 11. Content should be scannable. 12. Think in bullets and subtitles. 13. People like lists. The above list is excerpted from a post at Web ProNews called News Article Design 20 Tips for Good Web Copy.. Head over there for some more excellent tips on creating good usable web copy. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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13 ways to get sick-Thursday 13 on friday

Thirteen Things about Me! Ack, I've already missed my scheduled thursday thirteen posts. I blame it on being sick. Here is this past thursday thirteen's post, today. 13 ways to get sick. 1. Never wash your hands. Even after going to the bathroom. 2. Ask people to sneeze on you where ever you go. If someone looks like they are getting ready to sneeze, quick run and stand in front of them. 3. Hang out at the hospital or if possible the local clinic and pick up guys or gals that come out the doors. Look for those with sniffles, coughs, runny noses, etc. 4. Go to a bar and offer tongue kisses in exchange for half-empty beer 5. Take a long naked leap into the dumpster outside your apartment complex. 6. Go ahead and pet that stray doggie with matted hair and open sores. 7. Always, always brush your teeth with other people's toothbrushes. 8. Hang out in large crowds. The larger the better. 9. Travel to foreign countries without getting all your shots. 10. Don't use condoms. Instead blow them up like balloons and pass out to strangers on the street. (This will have the added benefit of getting you beaten up.) 11. Make sure to eat all your food with your fingers, instead of utensils. 12. Mold is your friend. Love on it. 13. Eat poorly cooked foods, and make ample use of cross-contamination in the kitchen. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Free Goal Setting Program for Improving Yourself

I came across Scott Young's blog today while blogging for a client and found it really interesting. It's all about personal development and constantly improving yourself, which I think is an essential part of writing, being a writer, what not. He's even got a free personal development software program for anyone to download...free! I'm big on free stuff.

I've downloaded it and am looking at some goals for the year that I want to develop using the software.

The Freelance Life: One Woman's Perspective on Writing as a Career Choice

Greetings my small minority of readers, today we'll have a guest post from Denise, a fellow freelance writer. Here's a link to her blog called Freelance Writing. Go check it out to see my guest post on her blog.

Here she is folks!

While I've always known I wanted to be a writer, I fell into freelance writing accidentally. I had just lost my job as a full-time employee at a dry cleaners, and I couldn't afford to be out of work for long. I had grown tired of the retail world, and the prospect of working at McDonalds did not appeal to me in the slightest.

I had to make a choice.

Browsing through Craig's List, I noticed there were sections that pertained to writing positions. Most of them were full-time, on site gigs, but a few of them I noticed were freelance opportunities. I suppose that's when the wheels began to turn in my brain. "Hey, I can do that!" I thought.

On a whim, I decided to apply to one of the freelance positions I came across during my research. I didn't expect much at the time, but to my amazement I actually got the job I applied for. I had no experience writing for pay, and, as many beginning freelancers do, I worked for that company for much less money than I could have received elsewhere. Only after I began heavily researching freelance writing as a viable career path did I realize I was slaving away for virtually nothing, when I could be taking the time to sell my services to an entirely different market that knew what I was worth.

I have been freelancing for almost two years now, and each time I sit down to craft an article or send a query letter, I am reminded of the benefits this job brings to my daily life. Sure, it gets scary when you aren't living on a guaranteed income each week - but would I go back to working a 9-5 menial labor job to make someone else rich?

Not a chance.

Freelance writing has opened up a world of opportunities I never knew existed prior to this, and I am always grateful that I stuck with my guns. I can work in my pajamas every day without fear of retribution! I don't have to wear makeup if I don't want to! I can check Myspace and say that I'm working!

Okay... that one was a little far fetched, but you see where I'm coming from. Can I say with confidence that I'll never go back to working slave wage jobs simply to pay the bills? No, I can't - desperate times often call for desperate measures. But I plan to continue to apply myself, dedicate myself to this career I chose, and hopefully continue to make a decent income.

That, my friends, is definitely something worthwhile.

Back to Hope-If you want to make a guest post on my blog send me an email or leave a comment and we'll talk business.

Last 13 Books I've Read

1. Measure Your EQ Factor by Gilles D'Ambra~most of these tests are like straight out of the sixties and seventies as far as women's rights are concerned.

2. You Can Write a Romance Novel by Rita Clay Estrada & Rita Gallagher

3. The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues by Harry Harrison-excellent science fiction series by the way.

4. Orbit 21 edited by can't remember-good collection of short science fiction stories.

5. Powers of Detection: Stories of Mystery and Magic by not sure-but another good collection of short mostly contemporary fantasy stories.

6. Second Lives: Becoming a Freelance Writer-a very short book but has a day in the life of a writer section and has a nifty test to to take.

7. How to Publish Your Articles-really only glanced through this...

8. New Games for the Whole Family by Dale N. LeFevre-research for work.

9. Great Party Games by Gyles Brandreth-more research for work.

10. Great Games for Great Parties by Andrea Campbell-again, research.

11. The Prince of Ice...this was research I swear.

12. Megan's Mark...shocking! :'0

13. Heart Mate...sort of research, okay maybe not, maybe...just brain candy.