Book Update

Here are a few samples from the cover shoot done for the book:

The layout is being formatted and I should have a few options to choose from by next week.  It is very exciting!!!

The book is finished.  I was planning to put it up on Kindle myself as well as a few other places, but have decided instead to send it to one publisher who is a long shot and to enter it into a contest with the winner being announced in August.  If by September, there is no good news on either of those fronts, I am going to decide on one of the co-publishing/self-publishing type of contracts I have been offered and go with that.  A traditional publishing contract is unlikely without a lot of hours of trying to get my foot in a door which is closing more by the day for all novelists.  As I just don't have hours to devote to that, I have decided to go the co-publishing/self-publishing route (unless of course I win this contest or a traditional publishing contract falls out of the sky)!

I will be mailing my contest entry this weekend, so wish me luck!

My Actual Online Earnings for May, 2011

I was working on finishing touches on my book this month.  The shoot for the book cover was the most fun I've had in a long time!  One of my daughters has also been struggling with her health again as she has a severe lung condition, so my time on the computer was limited and I did NO article writing for the second month in a row.  I was so happy to see that my old articles are continuing to make residual income.  Even though the amounts aren't nearly as high as they were the months I was writing, some is better than nothing!  Here is the breakdown of exactly how much money I made online in May, 2011:

Triond (both types of earnings)    $2.22

Bukisa                                        $3.50

My websites (ads)                       $4.02

My websites (affiliates)                $4.72

Itracks*                                      $100

Total online earnings for the month of May, 2011:

$114.46

*Itacks was for an online discussion group I participated in over a 2 month period.

I expect that my earning summary for June will look significantly different as my book will be available on Kindle and Barnes and Noble e-book division by then and I have a few other projects that I am working on.

Book is Basically Done

My book has been written.  Before I can put it up on Kindle, I need to do a few things like have a cover designed, get permission to use a song's lyrics, get someone to edit my Epilogue, and e-mail an author (as a courtesy) whose book is mentioned in mine.

It is really strange to have it pretty much finished.  54,180 words...194 pages...my words...my story...

I feel more nervous than relieved, but I am excited to move onto other projects once this is done.  I have three or four short e-books I want to write that are adoption related and I already have the skeleton for one of them mapped out so I am looking forward to starting on those shorter projects.

If all goes well, I could potentially have those little details wrapped up within a few weeks and have my book up on Kindle in June, perhaps even by June!!!  It makes me feel shaky and a bit sick to think that people will read what I've written and judge it.  I know that it is ridiculous to feel this way because I have been blogging for six years and people have been reading and judging that for most of those years, but somehow, this seems different.

Wish me luck!

My Actual Online Earnings for March, 2011

In March, I focused on getting a new website up and running and worked on editing my book.  Between these two things and rumours and news of plagiarism at Triond, I only wrote a few articles at the beginning of March and then stopped.  I'm not sure what my article writing future will look like given my fears of others plagiarizing my work.

Here are my online earnings for March, 2011:

Canada Talk Now Surveys $10

Surveyhead                              $25*

Surveylion                                $4

Triond (both types of earnings) $5.92

Bukisa                                     $2.62

My websites                             $3.57

Total online earnings for the month of March, 2011:

$51.11

*Surveyhead surveys were completed over a period of about six months, but I counted the income for March as this is when I reached the minimum payout.

For April, I'm not sure what my goals are as I miss article writing, but am wary about continuing.  However, I would really love to break the hundred dollar mark, so we'll see.  

I've been busy at work editing my book and am getting closer and closer to putting it up on Kindle.  Most of March was really focused on getting a website up and running and that took a lot more time than I anticipated.  The website is doing well for a new site though...one day, it had 851 hits!!!

We'll see what adventures April brings!

Website Ready, Now to Change Focus...

The website that I have spent two months working on is officially launched on Monday and I am pretty happy with the traffic so far and general response.  I have posts scheduled for the rest of the month, so there is little to do but moderate comments and do a bit of work for next month's posts.

This means that beginning next week, I will have the time to focus on another project and I have to admit that I am procrastinating when it comes to finishing my book and putting it into e-book format.  I have examined my reluctance and there are three things that I think are holding me back.

1.  There are a few things that need to be done that are outside my comfort zone and experience.  These include things such as obtaining permissions necessary to proceed.  There is a reference to another book in my book and as a courtesy to that author, I would like to ask for her permission to reference her book.  There are partial song lyrics, which are critical to one part of the story, but mean that I need to buy the rights to use them.  I have tried before and because they are from another country, ran into some snags and am nervous for the work it will entail.  I am also nervous for what the cost will be - yikes!

2.  I have to admit to being resistant about the whole e-book idea.  If I had a publisher offering to publish an actual book, I could easily finish and edit the book in a weekend because I would be excited and would want to see my writing in print, but an e-book doesn't excited me.  I like the feel of an actual book in my hands, so I don't have a Kindle or other e-reader, though my husband does, so seeing my words on one of those leaves me less than enthused!

3.  I am scared of failure.  What if I get it in e-book format and nobody buys it?  Worse than that, what if a few people buy it and don't like it?  If I don't finish it, I won't have to face these possibilities.

My Actual Online Earnings for February, 2011

One thing about goals you make yourself is that they can become goals you break yourself!  I had made a goal to finish writing my book in February and when it became apparent that the flu was going to take up residence at our house and wear out its welcome, I allowed that goal to slide away.  I was then only left with my goal of achieving Triond’s February bonus.  In order to qualify for an additional 30%, I needed to write 20 qualifying articles and managed to squeak in on the very last day with the last one.

Though my total online earnings for the month were about half of what I expected before I knew that I would be caring for six sick children all month and be sick myself, I am thrilled with how much of the online earnings came from my article writing.  I am especially happy since I did not do any writing at all other than on Triond and wrote less than 30 articles total.  This means that my residual earnings are continuing to increase.  This is a trend that I hope continues.  

Here are my online earning totals for the month of February, 2011:

Bukisa         $5.72

RedGage $0.26

Triond $11.90*

Surveylion $8.00

ACO Surveys $3.00

*Triond earnings are a reflection of the February bonus, regular Triond, and *dsense. 

Total earnings for February, 2011         $28.88

For March, I am going to finish writing that book if it kills me!  I hope to have it in e-book format by April.  I also plan to write 20 articles and to launch the adoption website I have been working on.  March will be a big month, but as most of those projects are foundation laying, I do not expect my income to be any higher than it was in February.  Hopefully, April will see me breaking that $100 mark!

Triond February

In February, Triond is offering a special.  If you publish 5 articles, you get an additional 10% on your monthly earnings.  If you publish 10 articles, you get an additional 20% and if you publish 20 articles, you get an additional 30% on your monthly earnings!  There is some fine print involved in that the articles need to be published on qualifying sites, so need to be on certain topics.  This is a very broad range though including Domestic (anything parenting, housekeeping, etc.), Sports, News, Humour, Health, Business, Science, Computers, and a few others.

I was planning to write very few articles in February and just see what the residual earnings would be, but this special is too good to pass up.  I have written 9 articles towards the bonus so far, so I already qualify for the additional 10% and am one article away from the additional 20%.  I am planning obviously to try to write 20 qualifying articles to get the 30% bonus.

If you are interested in signing up with Triond, it is free to join and I really enjoy the writing community over there.  I have learnt a lot already.  They only accept new work, so you cannot re-publish a blog post or already published article of yours.  You can however, publish something new at Triond and then turn it into a blog post or repost it elsewhere.

My writing has been really slow this month.  I don't have a babysitter as often anymore, the kids have been sick, and I have had birthday parties to plan (3) and other projects on the go.  I still have big plans for working on my book this month, but haven't so far.  I'll keep you posted!

My Actual Online Earnings for January 2011

January 2011 was my first month writing articles on Triond and I have to say that I loved the experience!  What I liked best was the writing community at Triond.  There are some extremely talented people writing over there and it was great to get feedback on some of my pieces and to read the ideas, writing tips, and information of others.  I was also impressed with the earning potential.  My first month writing articles over on another site, I made a whopping 25 cents, but I was able to count my first month’s Triond earnings in DOLLARS, not cents, which was really exciting.

As for my writing goals, I had set myself a high target of writing 100 articles in January.  I wanted to do this to establish a large enough portfolio to be able to test the earning potential at Triond compared to other places and because I knew that in February, I would be working more on my book and would not be able to devote as much time to article writing.  I was short of the goal by 8 articles, but I will admit that I could have actually reached the total I had set, but backed off the last day on purpose when I heard that Triond had announced a February Special.  By saving some of these intended articles to publish in February, I will be able to increase my February earnings by 30%.

I did not do any work over at RedGage or Bukisa in January and my earnings at those places reflect that.  Here are my online earning totals for the month of January, 2011:

Bukisa               $1.97

RedGage       $0.66

Triond (including *dsense)      $8.60

Surveylion       $8.00

CanadaTalksNow ***       $10.00

***CanadaTalksNow surveys were done over the past four months, but I only reached the minimum payment threshold now and am counting it all as this month.

Total online earnings for the month of January, 2011 = $29.23

Madly Trying to Reach My Goal

It is the second last day of the month and I am determined to meet my self-imposed goal of writing 100 articles this month.  I got up at 5 a.m. and drove M. to his part-time job at McDonald's, which Mark usually does, so that I could start the day early.  I came home and wrote 7 articles and all were fairly decent articles, with six of them requiring some research, so it was some intense writing time, but productive and fun and then...I ran out of ideas.  So now I am here with 10 or so articles to go before the goal is met and I am stuck!

But no fear (not that anyone but me would be worried!), tomorrow is another day and I have a babysitter coming so that I can get a few small but important errands done and finish this January article-writing blitz. Hopefully by tomorrow, I will have a brain full of fantastic ideas and can churn the words out quickly.

There are two articles that I have to wait until tomorrow to write anyway, so that just leaves me to think of 8 or so more brilliant ideas.  At this point, I'd take far less than brilliant ones!

Update

The writing this month has been interesting with attempting to reach my goal of writing 100 articles.  It's amazing how much the pennies start to snowball once you have a library of articles, but it does become difficult to come up with topics for articles.  100 in one month is a lot!  I am at 66 articles so far with only one week left to go.  I am going to push really hard to try to reach my goal just to be able to say to myself that I've done it.

It will be really interesting to add up the pennies at the end of the month though.  I also have chosen my writing goal for February and that is to finish my book and submit it in e-book format on Kindle.  That will also be a tough challenge to meet, but I think that I can do it.

When I was not setting writing goals for myself, I wasn't accomplishing much of anything, so the goals are the way to go!

With just one week left to go for the 100 article challenge, please feel free to leave me any ideas for articles in the comments section.  I'm getting desperate!!!  Thanks!

January 2011 Writing Goals

I am learning the effectiveness of making goals public.  The risk of public humiliation (okay not quite, but you get the idea!) is very motivating!

I have discovered this by writing a series of articles following my progress on my 2011 goal of de-cluttering my house.  Making these public has kept me on track even on days when I don't FEEL like doing the work I need to do to accomplish my goal.

Having said that, I am going to translate that into another area and make my writing goal for this month public as well.  Just a few days before the New Year started, I started writing articles on Triond.  I am experimenting with this online writing thing and want to see how Triond fares compared to some of the other article writing sites.  To that end, I need to write enough articles to get a true picture, so my goal for January is to write 100 articles on Triond.

I have this geeky little chart where I fill in a square every time one of the articles I submit is accepted for publication.  I took this picture of it a few days ago and have filled in another 9 or so squares since then.

I am almost on track for completing my 100 articles and I think I can push myself to get this done, especially now that I have to be accountable for my goal.

Surveylion

One of my little online earning experiments was to try to make some money doing surveys.  The #1 reason I wanted to try this is that I actually love some types of surveys.  I love it when you are given the opportunity to preview a print ad, commercial, television episodes, new products, etc. and give your opinion.  I want my opinion to matter because after all, I am a consumer and I want there to be good quality products available for my family and have a say in that.  In the past, I have participated in panels for free, so for me to possibly make some money at this is a bonus.

Let me say that when it comes to taking surveys online, there are more scams that legitimate companies and you need to be very careful.  Also, many companies only accept American participants, so as a Canadian, I had to do some research before I selected the three companies I decided to sign up with.  Most importantly, NEVER PAY TO SIGN UP WITH A SURVEY COMPANY!  I cannot say whether the sites that require you to pay make you money or not because I have never and will never sign up with them.  Many sites out there will try to get you to pay them with promises of large earning cheques in your future.  Never do this!  The survey company should be making their money off the marketers and companies that come to them for help with gathering helpful research, not from survey participants.

I decided not to include any of my survey earnings in my monthly totals until I had the money in my hands because I really wanted to be sure that they were legitimate companies before I recommended them here.

The first such company for me to receive a payout from and also the one I have enjoyed the most because their surveys have been a lot of fun and the easiest by far to complete is called Surveylion.  They accept Canadians (actually I think they may even be a Canadian company) and they do not have a minimum payout.  The two other companies each have a minimum payout that you need to reach before you can request payment, but with Surveylion, you can request your payment whenever you wish.  You can imagine my delight when this cheque came in the mail for me!

$9!!!  This was for completing 3 surveys, each of which took around 15 minutes to complete.  Not bad really!  Being paid $12 an hour for something you can do at home once your kids are in bed is definitely worth it, however, the truth is, there is not even an hour's worth of work to do each month from this site as they only e-mail survey opportunities once in a while and you may not qualify for all surveys.  Overall though, a pretty good addition to my online earnings.  I already have another $6 in my account there, but will wait until closer to the end of the month to request a cheque mailed in case it increases again.

If you would like an invitation to join Surveylion's consumer panel, e-mail me at oursevenblessings@gmail.com.

I will do a review of the other 2 survey companies I am with when I get my first payment from each of them in order to ensure that they are legitimate companies.

December 2010 Online Earnings

To recap for those who are newly following my blog or those who don't remember, in September, I began writing online and my grand total earnings for that month was a whopping 25 cents!  Yes, one whole shiny quarter was what I had to show for my 19 articles, but I was not deterred!  In October, I earned 81 cents more.  November was the month that I decided as an experiment to see if I could really make some actual money with this online writing thing and began an experiment in learning how to achieve this.  My total earnings in November was $8.12.  I was so happy to be able to have a dollar sign in the total amount!  November was a month where I was learning about SEO (search engine optimization), monetizing through ads, and branching out.  I was optimistic that December would be an even better month for earnings, though a more difficult one to find time for writing with my husband away for part of the month, 2 of my kids having birthdays, and of course, Christmas!

RedGage, a site I had discovered in October, turned out to be my biggest earner.  I like the community over there and was able to get another picture chosen for a feature as well as having a blog I wrote featured.  When something is chosen as a feature on RedGage, you receive a bonus as well as getting paid for views, so that is where the real earning potential is.  The big earner though was winning one of their daily contests, which pays TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS!!!

A few days ago, I also started writing on Triond, which allows me to first publish my articles there and then I can publish some or all of the same articles on Bukisa and put links to those articles on RedGage.  I am finally starting to figure this online writing thing out!  It is too early to say whether Triond will be worth it or not as my articles were just published in the past two days, so tune in for the January earnings summary and we'll see how that goes.

My December totals are as follows:

RedGage         $33.22

Bukisa             $3.41

Surveys           $9.00

Triond             $0.02

December 2010 total:   $45.65

Considering that I started just four months earlier making 25 cents a month, I would say that $45 is heading in the right direction.  I can say that I expect January's earnings to be considerably higher.  With 2011, I plan to put this online earning experiment in high gear and I will share with you what I learn.

(My next post will be about Surveyl*** and some other similar sites I have tried.)