Back Writing w/ a Vengence

Back to Blogging

Hey all, sorry for the long delay in between posts, but there has been a lot going on in the life of this writer, even compared to usual. For one, the freelance writing work is really starting to take off and seems to be making a recovery from the smoldering crater many of the freelance markets seemed to be in when the economy was tumbling head over heels through the middle of 2008. Yep, the work has not only been picking up again, but I've found some better consistent gigs that have helped me to push up my income level and even cut back on the hours I used to work. This was a very good thing since, as my last post talked about, carpal tunnel and writing don't get along.

Along those notes as well - I'm doing pretty good. I'm lucky in that I've caught it early enough that an ibuprofen regiment and occasionally wearing a brace have really dealt with 80-90% of the pain and discomfort issues for me. I've also learned to intersperse my work day with breaks, and as long as I take 10 minutes every hour, and a mid-day "siesta," it turns out I can still work 10 hour days without issue. I rarely even have to use the brace anymore, and ibuprofen usually only twice a day, which is good since I hate popping pills. I know, ironic for a writer, and yet that's one stereotype I defy. Can't drink anymore because of the ibuprofen, so I guess my OCD and general weirdness are the only writer stereotypes I have left :)

So between the move, the medical treatments, a few family trips & emergencies and a busy December to come, things are kind of returning back to better than normal, meaning now that most of the pain is gone and I have more time, I can spend more time on this freelance writing blog, which is definitely a labor of love.

That brings me to a critical last point for why the prolonged absence: at one point not only did I have to shed less profitable freelance work because my wrists limited my ability to type, but there was a very limited amount of hours I could work as a writer and so there was a choice to be made: creative writing or blogging.

I've wanted to be a creative writer all my life, and for the sake of my sanity, I need to write fiction. As my health, setting, and life in general has improved, so has my writing output. Soon I'm going to put one last polish on My Brother's Keeper before sending it out one more time (around 15 hand written rejections - so I'm so freaking close to getting it there), revising a novel I've co-authored with a couple buddies, and sending out a lot of fiction come January. This is in addition to my freelance work, and finding that ever important balance of freelance writing vs. creative writing is a major reason why my mood and outlook has improved drastically.

S0 in the next few weeks, or even the next few days, you can expect a flurry of blog posts here. Definitely part 2 to my original post of how to make money writing in college, since two months definitely counts as too long of a cliff hanger (my bad), as well as a few writing website reviews, including a "new" one that has only come to my attention recently and has helped push up my income and income stability immensely. My opinion of a few writing websites has changed, as well, based on recent changes & actions and I want to make sure to address those changes.

Beyond that I'm not sure what else there is to add. I'm still struggling with decisions on what direction to go with this blog, with how to organize posts and if I should stay with the long rambles I enjoy that sometimes get pretty random search traffic, or if I should post more often with shorter posts on really narrow topics. There are pros and cons to both, but I have a feeling for the next few months that business will go on as usual, and that's not necessarily a bad thing ever.

Thanks to all the new followers-nothing like coming back to a blog to see that people care. Feel free to leave a comment and as always I will try to get back to you relatively soon. Hope everyone is doing well and there is more coming, so stay tuned!

Master Dayton Blog Update

Master Dayton Blogging Update

Well it's been almost a full month since I last updated the blog, and I am sorry about that for the many people out there who I know have been following this blog and have been waiting for another post. I won't get into the personal details, but in the beginning of July we had to deal with a major family emergency/tragedy, and while facing this family always comes first. I won't go into details beyond that, but it's going to be very hard (God willing the worst any of us will ever have to face) and I will be continuing this blog because normalcy is like humor and faith - you need it most when it seems the most impossible to hold onto.

There has been a lot going on with the writing career that's encouraging. I think the freelance market is definitely beginning its turnaround. Things are still much harder than they were a year ago, but it's not nearly as bad as it was 6 months ago. Even though I did virtually no work at all in July, my residual or passive online income increased almost 70%. I took a few hours to study what I did at the end of June to see if there was something I was doing that might have explained that sudden surge. To my pleasant surprise, the answer was yes. While writing for many different websites, the numbers seemed to show me that in all my experimenting I had stumbled upon what potentially could be one heck of a winning combination - especially when writing for passive or residual income - which makes this particularly interesting and exciting to me.

Right now I'm not going to reveal it because I want to do some very focused testing over the next two months to see if my initial findings still hold up. The good news is that if this works, it's geared far more to writers who learn only a little bit of SEO or Internet Marketing as opposed to Internet Marketers. I know for me and many other online writers, learning the SEO is difficult and somewhat frustrating (I mean we're writers - we want to write, right?). If my testing holds up, you'll still need to know some basic SEO and keyword research, but once you have the basics down you'll be able to focus 90% of your effort on writing. I know if you're naturally more inclined to writing then this would definitely be a bonus.

So that's good news. I'm on the verge of making the $100 monthly threshold for AdSense. While I'm always getting paid bi-monthly now, just hitting that $100 every single month is a major mile stone that is really encouraging. Plus, you just can't complain about an extra Franklin every single month for work that has already been done. My eHow earnings also went up about 68% in the past month, and I just finished a major Power Point project that netted me about $440, with a second one now on the way - just in time for that major dental surgery I need later this month.

I also just picked up some really high paying freelance work this week, and have some leads on some more possible freelance work that might turn into steady gigs. If a few things go right, then maybe fall will be able to turnaround 2009 for me at least financially, if no other way. So in short, there will be many more updates to come, and I plan to continue to add more great information to try to help everyone out. If you're new here, take a look at older posts - I try my best to give away a lot of really good freelance writing advice, especially aimed at beginners, so please feel free to comment on anything you find useful, as well.

So that's it for now. More website reviews, writing advice, and the results of my upcoming two month experiment all coming soon. Good luck writing to everyone, and please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think!