If you've ever submitted the manuscript of a book to a print publisher, you've probably read the advice that it's okay to submit your manuscript to more than one publisher at the same time, because if more than one publisher accepts it, that'd be the least of your worries.
The same holds true for working on Elance or on any other online freelance site. (And, indeed, there's nothing to say you can't sign up for all the freelance sites on the web - ODesk, TextBroker, etc. If you're having a drought with one you can get work from another - especially TextBroker where you do not have to bid on jobs - if there's a job there in your Category, you can snap it up right away with now problem.
But if you stick with one freelance website - and I stick with Elance.com for the most part - you may wonder if you should bid on more than one job at a time.
Well, you will quickly find out that you MUST.
It seems like at least 80% and even more of jobs posted on Elance - at least in the writing categories - never get awarded.
So if you bid on 20 jobs, you might be awarded one or two.
You can increase this percentage if you specialize in niche categories - for example Wikipedia experts are always in demand. I advise you to create an account on Wikipedia right now, as a matter of fact, and start learning how to do the coding, and the writing that will satisfy the editors, because you can charge a very reasonable amount of money to put up pages on Wikipedia if you know how to do it. (And I'll share more information on how to work with Wikipedia in future posts.)
It's difficult to say whether you should confine your bids to only those clients who are old established Elance clients - they have little green dots by their name indicating that they have hired people for jobs in the past. But sometimes they are just searching for cost info and don't actually hire someone, whereas a brand new person - no dots to their name - may well hire someone for their job.
Read the project descriptions to get a feel for the client, and make your own decision on this...
Elance does have a series of tests you can take to show your levels of expertise with various software programs...you can do these if you like and they may increase your bid award percentage. (I've never done any of them - but I work mostly with clients who request a repeat of my services because they know what I can do...I'm at a point where I don't have to go out and find new clients.)
But if you are fortunate and are awarded one or two jobs - or more - at the same time, rejoice, and get to work!
Manage your time properly - no procrastination. Make sure you know your deadlines and meet them - every client can review your work and most will deduct a star if you miss a deadline. Communicate with your client and be candid if you need more time to do the work.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Why I despise GMail - one of many reasons
Since I had to create a GMail (Google mail) account to redeem all the "free" gifts I received after purchasing my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, I decided I'd create a Facebook account under that email.
So, I create the Facebook account, but it won't be active until I go to my Gmail account and click on the link in the email they've sent me.
So hour after hour passes and there's not email.
Why not?
Well...gee...it's because GMail doesn't deliver emails from Facebook to your email account, it delivers it into a tab called Social Media. So I finally looked up at the tabs and saw Social that I hadn't noticed before, and in any event would not have thought to look into it, because the message is supposed to be sent to my EMAIL account you idiots!!!!
And of course it was in there.
I didn't create a tab called Social...I didn't create any tabs, I want my email delivered into my email box, (preferably a yahoo.com email because *that* is an email, but unfortunately Samsung is partners with Google...)not some stupid "tab".
But then, the Gmail interface is so awful there is no describing it.
In Yahoo mail, everything is easy, you don't get lost.
In Gmail, you're email conversations are threaded and it is *impossible* to keep track of them (I speak from the experience of a previous Gmail account I was forced to create when I got an Elance job for a particular client - it was awful and it remains awful.)
So, I create the Facebook account, but it won't be active until I go to my Gmail account and click on the link in the email they've sent me.
So hour after hour passes and there's not email.
Why not?
Well...gee...it's because GMail doesn't deliver emails from Facebook to your email account, it delivers it into a tab called Social Media. So I finally looked up at the tabs and saw Social that I hadn't noticed before, and in any event would not have thought to look into it, because the message is supposed to be sent to my EMAIL account you idiots!!!!
And of course it was in there.
I didn't create a tab called Social...I didn't create any tabs, I want my email delivered into my email box, (preferably a yahoo.com email because *that* is an email, but unfortunately Samsung is partners with Google...)not some stupid "tab".
But then, the Gmail interface is so awful there is no describing it.
In Yahoo mail, everything is easy, you don't get lost.
In Gmail, you're email conversations are threaded and it is *impossible* to keep track of them (I speak from the experience of a previous Gmail account I was forced to create when I got an Elance job for a particular client - it was awful and it remains awful.)
Review: Magbook 360 Lifeworks, for 7-8" tablets
I went to Walmart today and bought a case for my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 - not that I really wanted a case but it's so dusty in my house and I wanted something to keep the dust off...
Cost $31, including tax, for a Magboox 360 Lifeworks case, which is supposed to be compatible with an IPad Mini, a Kindle Fire HD 7, a Google Nexus 7, aGalaxy Tab 2 7.0. a Galaxy Note 8.0 (what I've got) a Nook HD, and "most 7-8 inch tablets."
Well, there is no way in the world this thing fits most 7-8 inch tablets or any 7-8 inch tablets. It comes with a tiny 3 X 4 stiff-cardboard thing, with rubber straps on it - which certainly do NOT adjust to fit your tablet! How can stiff rubber straps on a 3 X 4 piece of cardboard extend to fit an 8 inch tablet?
More than that, if you just set the Google Note into the case itself, the top of the thing sticks out about an 8th of an inch above the case.
I know I had my technological difficulties with the SD Card and the S pen yesterday, but believe me there is no way this thing can fit - and I will prove it with appropriate photographs!
Cost $31, including tax, for a Magboox 360 Lifeworks case, which is supposed to be compatible with an IPad Mini, a Kindle Fire HD 7, a Google Nexus 7, aGalaxy Tab 2 7.0. a Galaxy Note 8.0 (what I've got) a Nook HD, and "most 7-8 inch tablets."
Well, there is no way in the world this thing fits most 7-8 inch tablets or any 7-8 inch tablets. It comes with a tiny 3 X 4 stiff-cardboard thing, with rubber straps on it - which certainly do NOT adjust to fit your tablet! How can stiff rubber straps on a 3 X 4 piece of cardboard extend to fit an 8 inch tablet?
More than that, if you just set the Google Note into the case itself, the top of the thing sticks out about an 8th of an inch above the case.
I know I had my technological difficulties with the SD Card and the S pen yesterday, but believe me there is no way this thing can fit - and I will prove it with appropriate photographs!
 |
| Case claims it first 7 and 8 inch tablets |
 |
| Note the ruler. The card with therubber straps on it is much, much smaller than the Galaxy Note 8.0 |
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| The top right of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 in the strap - look where the bottom strap is. |
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0: The User Guide part 1
Frailty, thy name is woman.
Well, I went to Sam's Club today with my brand new Visa Freedom credit card, because I'd seen a commercial for a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (well, some kind of Galaxy tablet, not sure which one) and decided I wanted one, and this new credit card would allow me to make a purchase and not have to pay interest on it for 10 months or so.
I wanted the Galaxy because I like the name - but I'm already sort of regretting my choice - for the same price I could have got an IPad 2 which had twice the screen size. But, I went with my first choice.
Unfortunately, Sam's Club doesn't take Visa cards!
Right then and there I should have heeded my own advice, I didn't really need the thing. But if I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (I'm repeating the name for SEO purposes, so that Google will hopefully rank this post high for anyone searching for that "search phrase" then I could write articles about it and perhaps recoup my investment.
Sam's Club was having a special, get an in-store credit card, and get $40 off any purchase of $100 or more. Of course their credit card charges 22% interest on balances, but since I don't intend to carry a balance...
So I applied and was accepted. Of course. (They don't care about your credit score or anything, these credit card companies. They'll give anyone a card - perhaps unless your credit score is absolute garbage...)
So I bought the tablet, brought it home, and plugged it in to charge up the battery.
Part 1: Where to find the 8 GB micro SD card (memory for storage) and the S pen
While the battery was charging, I searched high and low in the packaging for the SD card and the S pen and couldn't find them anywhere.
The manual was of little help - it's a tiny thing. Which is why I am operating on the assumption that all new users of this device are going to have some of the same problems I had and probably will have, and so this User Manual for the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 will be published over several posts.
I finally found where the SD card was supposed to go, opened it up (it's a flimsy thing, and glanced in and didn't see anything. I also didn't expect it to be already installed .... but it was. When I looked inside that slot again it was there. Since it's black, it wasn't easy to see the first time. It's like an SD card for a camera - you press it in to insert it, and you press it again to remove it. So I pressed it back in and closed it up.
But I still didn't know where the S pen was. I tried to search online for the phrase "Where is the S pen in the packaging for the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, and saw a picture of someone using the pen, and it looked like the pen was attached to the device by a USB cord of some kind.
So I thought, well, I've been cheated out of my pen.
And I emailed support and asked them where it was.
And five minutes later I thought, well... and I turned the tablet over.
And there in nice big print was the icon for the pen - it inserted into a little hole in the device itself. And there was an icon for the SD card as well.
And so of course I felt pretty stupid.
But if the "manual" (I use that term loosely - it's a "Quick Start Guide") had just said, "The pen is in a slot in the device itself" I wouldn't have had a problem. The Guide features a picture of the device and arrows with numbers pointing to where things are, and No. 9 is S Pen slot, but just because it has a slot doesn't imply that the pen is in the slot! (In the past, I've had things shipped that were separate and you had to install them all to prevent Electrostatic build up and I was expecting something of the same nature here.)
Anyway, my readers might shake their heads at the above story and think me pretty stupid, but I'll lay dollars to donuts that as this User Guide progresses, you'll get some use out of it. (For example, why is it that when you input your password to access the internet, the Connect button remains grey, so you can't say Connect? Well, it's because even before you try to connect, the device can tell whether or not you've used the correct password or not! I had thought our Wi-fi password was one thing, but it was actually another, and if the device had allowed me to try to connect but said, "wrong password" I would have known that I was using the wrong password. But instead it wouldn't even let me try to connect - but it would let me sign on as a Guest to my Wi-fi - and then acted as if I was connected, when I tried to go through the rest of the sign in process, but I never really was. I went up to find the correct password, because even when I tried to sign in as Guest (when I went to the Internet and tried to log in, with the device telling me I was logged into wi-fe) it kept telling me wrong password.
Found the right password, but that still wouldn't work. So I decided to go back to the initial set up screen to switch from Guest to my actual Wi Fi account - and it took a helluva long time to find it, as I will describe tomorrow.)
But I found it, input the correct password, and immediately the greyed-out Connect Button ungreyed and let me log in.
So that will be the subject of tomorrow's post in the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 User's Guide.
Well, I went to Sam's Club today with my brand new Visa Freedom credit card, because I'd seen a commercial for a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (well, some kind of Galaxy tablet, not sure which one) and decided I wanted one, and this new credit card would allow me to make a purchase and not have to pay interest on it for 10 months or so.
I wanted the Galaxy because I like the name - but I'm already sort of regretting my choice - for the same price I could have got an IPad 2 which had twice the screen size. But, I went with my first choice.
Unfortunately, Sam's Club doesn't take Visa cards!
Right then and there I should have heeded my own advice, I didn't really need the thing. But if I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (I'm repeating the name for SEO purposes, so that Google will hopefully rank this post high for anyone searching for that "search phrase" then I could write articles about it and perhaps recoup my investment.
Sam's Club was having a special, get an in-store credit card, and get $40 off any purchase of $100 or more. Of course their credit card charges 22% interest on balances, but since I don't intend to carry a balance...
So I applied and was accepted. Of course. (They don't care about your credit score or anything, these credit card companies. They'll give anyone a card - perhaps unless your credit score is absolute garbage...)
So I bought the tablet, brought it home, and plugged it in to charge up the battery.
Part 1: Where to find the 8 GB micro SD card (memory for storage) and the S pen
While the battery was charging, I searched high and low in the packaging for the SD card and the S pen and couldn't find them anywhere.
The manual was of little help - it's a tiny thing. Which is why I am operating on the assumption that all new users of this device are going to have some of the same problems I had and probably will have, and so this User Manual for the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 will be published over several posts.
I finally found where the SD card was supposed to go, opened it up (it's a flimsy thing, and glanced in and didn't see anything. I also didn't expect it to be already installed .... but it was. When I looked inside that slot again it was there. Since it's black, it wasn't easy to see the first time. It's like an SD card for a camera - you press it in to insert it, and you press it again to remove it. So I pressed it back in and closed it up.
But I still didn't know where the S pen was. I tried to search online for the phrase "Where is the S pen in the packaging for the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, and saw a picture of someone using the pen, and it looked like the pen was attached to the device by a USB cord of some kind.
So I thought, well, I've been cheated out of my pen.
And I emailed support and asked them where it was.
And five minutes later I thought, well... and I turned the tablet over.
And there in nice big print was the icon for the pen - it inserted into a little hole in the device itself. And there was an icon for the SD card as well.
And so of course I felt pretty stupid.
But if the "manual" (I use that term loosely - it's a "Quick Start Guide") had just said, "The pen is in a slot in the device itself" I wouldn't have had a problem. The Guide features a picture of the device and arrows with numbers pointing to where things are, and No. 9 is S Pen slot, but just because it has a slot doesn't imply that the pen is in the slot! (In the past, I've had things shipped that were separate and you had to install them all to prevent Electrostatic build up and I was expecting something of the same nature here.)
Anyway, my readers might shake their heads at the above story and think me pretty stupid, but I'll lay dollars to donuts that as this User Guide progresses, you'll get some use out of it. (For example, why is it that when you input your password to access the internet, the Connect button remains grey, so you can't say Connect? Well, it's because even before you try to connect, the device can tell whether or not you've used the correct password or not! I had thought our Wi-fi password was one thing, but it was actually another, and if the device had allowed me to try to connect but said, "wrong password" I would have known that I was using the wrong password. But instead it wouldn't even let me try to connect - but it would let me sign on as a Guest to my Wi-fi - and then acted as if I was connected, when I tried to go through the rest of the sign in process, but I never really was. I went up to find the correct password, because even when I tried to sign in as Guest (when I went to the Internet and tried to log in, with the device telling me I was logged into wi-fe) it kept telling me wrong password.
Found the right password, but that still wouldn't work. So I decided to go back to the initial set up screen to switch from Guest to my actual Wi Fi account - and it took a helluva long time to find it, as I will describe tomorrow.)
But I found it, input the correct password, and immediately the greyed-out Connect Button ungreyed and let me log in.
So that will be the subject of tomorrow's post in the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 User's Guide.
Misperceptions....
I read the blog of a certain individual who is a successful boutique soundtrack producer.
Today, he made a comment in his blog entry that "Yesterday hundreds of thousands people spent money they weren't supposed to have."
And he seems to think that this means that it isn't true that we live in a depressed economy, it isn't true that jobs under the President have not recovered, etc. etc.
This is an intelligent guy, so I was surprised by his total misunderstanding of the situation.
I would be willing to bet that 90% of the people who went out in droves on Black Friday did indeed spend money that they do not have.
It's very easy to do.
They used their credit cards.
So all of these people snapped up deals, and maybe 90% of them used a brand new credit card that won't charge them any interest on their purchases for a specific amount of time. But I'd also be willing to bet that 90% of those people bought so much stuff that when that introductory period is over, they will then start paying 22% interest on their purchases.
I say this bit about credit cards from experience. For the last several months, not a day goes by that I do not receive at least one, and usually two or three, letters from a credit card company telling me I've been pre-approved for a credit card.
And a month or so ago, when I went into Barnes & Noble, they were encouraging people to get their credit card as well.
5% rebate on all purchases made in a B&N, and one point for every dollar spent everywhere else. Plus a free $25 gift card "on my first purchase."
So I applied for that one online and was accepted immediately.
The only problem is I've been seeing the Silverlight (Silver-something) commercials by Samuel L. Jackson lately, and with that card you get 5% cash back on every purchase....every damn day. (I'm sure I saw at least one version of this commercial where he did say the word "damn," but I haven't seen it recently.)
That of course would be a much better deal, but I've got so many credit cards now (yes - I applied and was accepted for all these major credit cards (each one with a different name, for example Visa has the Freedom card, which I now have, but I prefer the look of the Slate card they offer, it's a sad thing when you can apply for credit cards based solely on their appearance), this despite the fact that I am self-employed - they must have gone solely on my credit score because they sure didn't have an employer to talk to).
Long story short, I could have gone out on Black Friday and bought $7,000 worth of goods, spending money I don't have, but I learned my lesson about the tender trap of credit cards decades ago.
(I applied for the cards just out of curiosity, just to see if they'd actually give them to me, I don't need them and don't intend to use them - except the B&N card, of course.. The others are tucked away just in case of an emergency - and knock on wood I'll never have to use them.)
People spend an average of $700 on Christmas presents
This is another sad statistic. I don't spend more than $100 on my Christmas gifts for folks, but that's because all I give are books.
Most people go into debt to buy Christmas presents, reinforcing to little children that Christmas is all about receiving presents - and of course that is just what businesses want you to think. These days, if a kid doesn't get hundreds of dollars worth of gifts - that outpace what he received the year before, he or she tends to throw a fit - or parents suspect this and pile on the gifts just to prevent it from happening.
It will be very interesting to read a year from now just how many people default on their credit card bills, or go to the Credit Card Helpers of America (I can't remember their actual name) where they can get their debt cut down to pennies on the dollar. Good for them, good for the stores that sold them the merchandise, not so good for the "evil" credit card companies who have to eat the debt.
Pay off your credit card bill every month
If at all possible, you should pay off your credit card every month. Use the thing for convenience because you get points for it, but never spend more than you can afford to pay off. Otherwise - every single thing you buy will cost twice as much as it originally cost you, in interest (and potential late fees).
For freelance writers, especially, whose earnings each month can fluctuate, going into debt with credit cards is to be avoided if at all possible.
_____
88
Today, he made a comment in his blog entry that "Yesterday hundreds of thousands people spent money they weren't supposed to have."
And he seems to think that this means that it isn't true that we live in a depressed economy, it isn't true that jobs under the President have not recovered, etc. etc.
This is an intelligent guy, so I was surprised by his total misunderstanding of the situation.
I would be willing to bet that 90% of the people who went out in droves on Black Friday did indeed spend money that they do not have.
It's very easy to do.
They used their credit cards.
So all of these people snapped up deals, and maybe 90% of them used a brand new credit card that won't charge them any interest on their purchases for a specific amount of time. But I'd also be willing to bet that 90% of those people bought so much stuff that when that introductory period is over, they will then start paying 22% interest on their purchases.
I say this bit about credit cards from experience. For the last several months, not a day goes by that I do not receive at least one, and usually two or three, letters from a credit card company telling me I've been pre-approved for a credit card.
And a month or so ago, when I went into Barnes & Noble, they were encouraging people to get their credit card as well.
5% rebate on all purchases made in a B&N, and one point for every dollar spent everywhere else. Plus a free $25 gift card "on my first purchase."
So I applied for that one online and was accepted immediately.
The only problem is I've been seeing the Silverlight (Silver-something) commercials by Samuel L. Jackson lately, and with that card you get 5% cash back on every purchase....every damn day. (I'm sure I saw at least one version of this commercial where he did say the word "damn," but I haven't seen it recently.)
That of course would be a much better deal, but I've got so many credit cards now (yes - I applied and was accepted for all these major credit cards (each one with a different name, for example Visa has the Freedom card, which I now have, but I prefer the look of the Slate card they offer, it's a sad thing when you can apply for credit cards based solely on their appearance), this despite the fact that I am self-employed - they must have gone solely on my credit score because they sure didn't have an employer to talk to).
Long story short, I could have gone out on Black Friday and bought $7,000 worth of goods, spending money I don't have, but I learned my lesson about the tender trap of credit cards decades ago.
(I applied for the cards just out of curiosity, just to see if they'd actually give them to me, I don't need them and don't intend to use them - except the B&N card, of course.. The others are tucked away just in case of an emergency - and knock on wood I'll never have to use them.)
People spend an average of $700 on Christmas presents
This is another sad statistic. I don't spend more than $100 on my Christmas gifts for folks, but that's because all I give are books.
Most people go into debt to buy Christmas presents, reinforcing to little children that Christmas is all about receiving presents - and of course that is just what businesses want you to think. These days, if a kid doesn't get hundreds of dollars worth of gifts - that outpace what he received the year before, he or she tends to throw a fit - or parents suspect this and pile on the gifts just to prevent it from happening.
It will be very interesting to read a year from now just how many people default on their credit card bills, or go to the Credit Card Helpers of America (I can't remember their actual name) where they can get their debt cut down to pennies on the dollar. Good for them, good for the stores that sold them the merchandise, not so good for the "evil" credit card companies who have to eat the debt.
Pay off your credit card bill every month
If at all possible, you should pay off your credit card every month. Use the thing for convenience because you get points for it, but never spend more than you can afford to pay off. Otherwise - every single thing you buy will cost twice as much as it originally cost you, in interest (and potential late fees).
For freelance writers, especially, whose earnings each month can fluctuate, going into debt with credit cards is to be avoided if at all possible.
_____
88
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Blog Ideas: Choose a TV show....
I typically like to know how an episode of a TV show ends just as I start to watch it - usually one of the Law & Order franchise but really, any drama.
I don't like to watch the episodes all the way through unless I know how they are going to end - so I go online and do a search on the series and the the episode name and "recap," and sometimes it comes up that a Law & Order blog (All Things Law & Order) has the recap (a blog that the author has not monetized, interestingly - I'd've thought she'd've joined Amazon.com or BN.com and put ads for the DVDs or videogames on her site...)
Anyway...I'm also watching a Mexican soap opera called Una Familia Con Suerte, in an effort to improve my Spanish. Actually, the term for these things is a "telenovela."
This one lasted for a year, and I think it's about halfway through now. I didn't want to have to wait a whole year to find out how it ended, so I went online and did searches for recaps of the episodes - and there *is* a site that shares summaries of Spanish telenovelas, in English, but it's very poorly designed and I could never track down all the daily episodes for Una Familia Con Suerte. (And it wasn't moneitized either.) Finally I did find a site, in Spanish, and learned what I wanted to know...(and the last episode is actually available to watch on YouTube!)
So, if you like a TV show - probably a drama would have more change of getting readers than a sitcom - whether it's a new one that is just starting or one that has been on for a while, try starting a blog dedicated to that TV show and providing synopses of episodes, because you may be sure someone's going to do a search on the web to find out how a particular episode ended and who the villain was or who lives or dies - depending on what type of show it is, of course.
Moonetize it with DVDs of the shows, novelizations of episodes, etc. as an affiliate with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.
Specialist blogs are much more successful than generalist blogs when it comes to earning money from affiliate sites (unless you live in Hollywood and can do a gossip site on all the actors, but that's rare...)
Find a TV show - or any subject that interests you - start a blog and post in it daily and make it an "authority site," and you will attract visitors and income from Google Adsense and your book store affiliates.
(Be aware that it may take three or four weeks before you start getting hits - don't worry about how long it takes for Search Engines to start indexing you or people to start finding you. If you post quality content every day - sooner or later your audience will arrive.
If it's a Really Popular Show....
Some shows become so popular that people will want to create their own magazine or site dedicated to the show, and will look for a freelance writer who will want to write articles on the show in all its aspects - so if you like a show, be sure to keep detailed notes on it.
I actually once had the opportunity to write articles on the show The Living Dead- or whatever that latest zombie show is called...it would have paid well but I would have had to track down the episodes and watch them - since horror shows aren't my cup of tea.... however, fortunately I got a much better gig at the same time so had to tender my regrets...
But, "you never know," as the saying goes.
I don't like to watch the episodes all the way through unless I know how they are going to end - so I go online and do a search on the series and the the episode name and "recap," and sometimes it comes up that a Law & Order blog (All Things Law & Order) has the recap (a blog that the author has not monetized, interestingly - I'd've thought she'd've joined Amazon.com or BN.com and put ads for the DVDs or videogames on her site...)
Anyway...I'm also watching a Mexican soap opera called Una Familia Con Suerte, in an effort to improve my Spanish. Actually, the term for these things is a "telenovela."
This one lasted for a year, and I think it's about halfway through now. I didn't want to have to wait a whole year to find out how it ended, so I went online and did searches for recaps of the episodes - and there *is* a site that shares summaries of Spanish telenovelas, in English, but it's very poorly designed and I could never track down all the daily episodes for Una Familia Con Suerte. (And it wasn't moneitized either.) Finally I did find a site, in Spanish, and learned what I wanted to know...(and the last episode is actually available to watch on YouTube!)
So, if you like a TV show - probably a drama would have more change of getting readers than a sitcom - whether it's a new one that is just starting or one that has been on for a while, try starting a blog dedicated to that TV show and providing synopses of episodes, because you may be sure someone's going to do a search on the web to find out how a particular episode ended and who the villain was or who lives or dies - depending on what type of show it is, of course.
Moonetize it with DVDs of the shows, novelizations of episodes, etc. as an affiliate with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.
Specialist blogs are much more successful than generalist blogs when it comes to earning money from affiliate sites (unless you live in Hollywood and can do a gossip site on all the actors, but that's rare...)
Find a TV show - or any subject that interests you - start a blog and post in it daily and make it an "authority site," and you will attract visitors and income from Google Adsense and your book store affiliates.
(Be aware that it may take three or four weeks before you start getting hits - don't worry about how long it takes for Search Engines to start indexing you or people to start finding you. If you post quality content every day - sooner or later your audience will arrive.
If it's a Really Popular Show....
Some shows become so popular that people will want to create their own magazine or site dedicated to the show, and will look for a freelance writer who will want to write articles on the show in all its aspects - so if you like a show, be sure to keep detailed notes on it.
I actually once had the opportunity to write articles on the show The Living Dead- or whatever that latest zombie show is called...it would have paid well but I would have had to track down the episodes and watch them - since horror shows aren't my cup of tea.... however, fortunately I got a much better gig at the same time so had to tender my regrets...
But, "you never know," as the saying goes.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Doctor Who Marathon on BBC America Today: or Didn't I Record These Already?
or It Pays To Keep A Detailed Log of Everything You Do!
It may seem a little off-topic to be writing about the Doctor Who marathon on BBC America today, but it's really not.
You can turn any of your interests, and any event that happens to you, into a blog post, a memoir for a magazine article, or just use it as an exercise in writing.
In the 1980s, whenever there was a Doctor Who Marathon, it would feature the 4th Doctor, my Doctor, the one I grew up with: Tom Baker.
Today's marathon features Matt Smith, and I have to admit I never watched his episodes before - and I'm not watching them now, I've got too much work to do. But I am DVD-R-ing them.
And I'm doing this even though I think that I actually did DVD-R them before, when they were shown in their normal times slot on BBC America last year, but I never watched them then either. A combination of not having time or being in the mood.
Because I'm so busy, I typically watch TV shows I know I'm going to like - because I work in front of my TV. I concentrate on my writing, looking up at the TV only when my favorite parts of a particular episode are on, and since I know the shows by heart I know when to do that!
But if you were to ask me - okay, where are all these Doctor Who shows you supposedly DVD-R-ed, I couldn't tell you.
And you see...this is the value of serendipity.
Originally this blog post was just going to be a paean to Doctor Who, a ground-breaking series that holds a special place in my heart for reasons I won't go into now, but as I wrote the direction of the post changed - that happens sometimes.
Now it's a post about Organization and Keeping Track of Your Belongings/Collections.
If you're not organized, you really need to be. Otherwise you can waste time and money (albeit perhaps not a lot of it, DVD-Rs aren't that expensive) duplicating effort you've already done.
Money may not be that precious (you can always earn more), but time definitely is.
Let me repeat that: Time is precious, and you shouldn't waste any of it unnecessarily.
So when you pack away some of your belongings, either by necessity or just because you're cleaning house, make sure you make a note of everything you pack away and where you've packed it away, and keep those detailed notes in an easily accessible notebook so you always know where to go to find out what you've put away and where you've put them!
Trusting in your memory, especially after a year or two of "out of sight, out of mind," just doesn't work.
The same thing holds true for your writing. Presumably you write everything on your computer, but do you have all your files properly named so you can find them easily? You may depend on your Search function on the computer to be able to find any file, but sometimes that Search function can go wonky, or you may not remember what you named the file, if you don't give them sensible, identifiable names but rather whimsical ones.
So, go, enjoy The Doctor Who marathon. And remember - the best Doctors were Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. These new guys, pshaw!
It may seem a little off-topic to be writing about the Doctor Who marathon on BBC America today, but it's really not.
You can turn any of your interests, and any event that happens to you, into a blog post, a memoir for a magazine article, or just use it as an exercise in writing.
In the 1980s, whenever there was a Doctor Who Marathon, it would feature the 4th Doctor, my Doctor, the one I grew up with: Tom Baker.
Today's marathon features Matt Smith, and I have to admit I never watched his episodes before - and I'm not watching them now, I've got too much work to do. But I am DVD-R-ing them.
And I'm doing this even though I think that I actually did DVD-R them before, when they were shown in their normal times slot on BBC America last year, but I never watched them then either. A combination of not having time or being in the mood.
Because I'm so busy, I typically watch TV shows I know I'm going to like - because I work in front of my TV. I concentrate on my writing, looking up at the TV only when my favorite parts of a particular episode are on, and since I know the shows by heart I know when to do that!
But if you were to ask me - okay, where are all these Doctor Who shows you supposedly DVD-R-ed, I couldn't tell you.
And you see...this is the value of serendipity.
Originally this blog post was just going to be a paean to Doctor Who, a ground-breaking series that holds a special place in my heart for reasons I won't go into now, but as I wrote the direction of the post changed - that happens sometimes.
Now it's a post about Organization and Keeping Track of Your Belongings/Collections.
If you're not organized, you really need to be. Otherwise you can waste time and money (albeit perhaps not a lot of it, DVD-Rs aren't that expensive) duplicating effort you've already done.
Money may not be that precious (you can always earn more), but time definitely is.
Let me repeat that: Time is precious, and you shouldn't waste any of it unnecessarily.
So when you pack away some of your belongings, either by necessity or just because you're cleaning house, make sure you make a note of everything you pack away and where you've packed it away, and keep those detailed notes in an easily accessible notebook so you always know where to go to find out what you've put away and where you've put them!
Trusting in your memory, especially after a year or two of "out of sight, out of mind," just doesn't work.
The same thing holds true for your writing. Presumably you write everything on your computer, but do you have all your files properly named so you can find them easily? You may depend on your Search function on the computer to be able to find any file, but sometimes that Search function can go wonky, or you may not remember what you named the file, if you don't give them sensible, identifiable names but rather whimsical ones.
So, go, enjoy The Doctor Who marathon. And remember - the best Doctors were Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. These new guys, pshaw!
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