Monthly Roundup For July 2009
July was a funny month here at Maison Wyatt. It started out with regular gigs, but then went totally dead in the middle. I had even started worrying where the next job would come from.
I still had that six-month-long cheap blogging job that goes on until November and the animal species editing (which went from 10-20k words in a week to over 60k!), but that was it. Then suddenly, about a week ago, things went nuts.
Two new job bids came up on Elance: firstly there’s some ghostwriting for a very nice chap from Wales, based on business stuff which is at the limit of my comprehension. He’s smart, though, and provides the groundwork ideas for each item – my experience in working on big projects at Cisco fills in the gaps and the combination turns out some work of which I’m really quite proud.
Secondly, I’ve started proofreading press releases for a games company in Eastern Europe. This was the first time I’d been invited to bid on an entirely private project: Elance has a feature where the employer can choose precisely who bids, and no one else. I’m understandably very pleased to have been invited – and to have won the job!
Originally, this was supposed to be once per week, just ensuring that the text sounds correct for the UK market, but last week saw almost a dozen releases go through my virtual hands. The company’s helpful, friendly and professional (and a good name to put on my editing CV later!) but they don’t have a clue about Elance, so I’ve been teaching them that at the same time! Very enjoyable.
Additionally, I just checked my email and saw an invitation for another job, from a previous client. I’ve already done two or three jobs for her and she’s back for more. That’s good.
The earnings blog is updated – July was similar to June. This should start picking up a bit, as I am getting more well-paid (or at least “normally-paid”) work. No big news on the eBook front, I’m afraid, but I was so busy this last week that I didn’t get around to any promotion. Bad Spike. Go to your room without any supper.
How was July for you? Enough work or having a rough time?
We’re all pulling for you pilgrim. What with your reporting on your advancement to ‘normal paying wages,’ maybe I ought to consider an Elance membership. The free thing doesn’t appear to work all that well.
Cheers,
Steven
I know I should probably think of John Wayne when the word ‘pilgrim’ is used, but I always think of the hymn “Onward, Christian Soldiers”… that’s what you get for having a preacher for a dad and a love of mediaeval stuff…!!
Thanks, Steven. Things are really starting to pick up at the moment: two more invites today for projects. I’m not even applying for stuff, it’s coming to me. That’s a really nice feeling, even if it turns out to be short-lived.
It’s probably a result of having watched an awful lot of Wayne’s westerns recently.
Anyways, I’ll be anxious to see how August turns out. Perhaps you’re out of the ruff? I hope you keep up this blog. Missed you last week. Maybe you can elaborate on some of your processes. What have you learned about making Elance work? I’ve been watching their RSS for awhile now, and still it seems gadawful to me.
I’m waiting for it to be yesterday in America, and then I’ll get $56us go into my PayPal account. The money is supposed to go in there in the 4th of August, but that was two days ago here, Australia is ahead of America and the UK in that at least. Anyway that money is from writing sponsored blog posts, and I still think that’s my most fun way to earn money online so far.
My ebook is earning nothing and my Adsense is still looking pathetic. It’s crept up, but I think I’m still years away from payout.
I’m toying with the idea of actually paying for my own website, rather than sticking with Blogger. I have a couple of WordPress free blogs that I keep forgetting about. Must go there again. I’m assuming you would advise going with WordPress for my paid for blogsite Spike?
I fear I may have reached my personal level of incompetence and it may stop dead now. I hope not, but you never know.
Steven: Don’t worry, this blog’s not going to disappear. It was just a very, very busy week last week, combined with a notable lack of motivation! As for Elance, some of the comments on the old bidding sites post suggest Guru might be better. I don’t know: I still have no way of handling their mass of projects without losing my mind (no RSS = no follow). I’ll have a think on Elance again and post some more tips if there’s anything new!
Carolyn: $56 isn’t too bad for a bit of extra, “why not?” income. I think I made $9 from paid blog posting a couple of months ago, but that’s been about it recently! Strangely, Elance users seem to want to push me into being an editor rather than a writer, given the state of the offers I’ve been getting. Weird.
As for paying for your own blog, I don’t think it makes a significant difference, in all honesty, unless you’re famous. I paid for my WordPress domain name ($15/yr through WP itself) because I’d had trouble with a domain name before and didn’t want to run into any hassle, but it can’t host ads (I wanted it that way). If you are terribly serious about it all, I’d personally suggest getting hosted somewhere like FatCow, which will set you back $50-60 (at a guess) for the year, but you can do whatever you want with your WP install (or use Blogger or MovableType or whatever you want). I’d also suggest reading Grizzly’s AdSense post over on Today.com.
Sorry to jump into your thread Spike, tell me to shut up if necessary lol
Carolyn, you don’t strictly need to pay for your own blog. I know a lot of blogging gurus say you should, but we don’t listen to them. Plenty of people have successful blogs on free hosts. I was with Blogger for years and my blog did very well. I’ve moved it now to a paid host, but that was to give me extra features, not because I felt I needed to professionally. Saying that, if you do own your domain and have paid for space, you do have all sorts of options you won’t have on Blogger or (free) WordPress. Plus, if you wanted to make a name for yourself, owning the domain is worthwhile.
Kate: Your remarks are always very welcome here – you know your stuff with blogging and WP and all that – great advice, thank you!
Thought I’d better say something – some people don’t like it. I think those people rather miss the point of blogging, but each to their own lol