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Never has there been a time in human History that it has been so easy to make a freelance income from work you do at home. This blog is dedicated to those that are ready to earn more money in the digital age. It works side by side with the forum at www.freeelanceonlineworkforum.com

Failed About.com Prep School

March 18th 2008 15:54
Well, now I have loads of time to go back to writing for all my blogs. I have been in prep school since February 29th to possibly become a Guide on About.com. My final review was yesterday and here is the email I received from my prep mentor:

My "Dear Jane" Letter

"Lynn,

After a difficult decision-making process, we've decided that,
unfortunately, we're not going to be able to offer you the position of Guide to Herb Gardens at this time. While you created a lot of good content and clearly have an excellent grasp of the topic, we've decided to go with another candidate whose greater breadth and depth of coverage gave us a better idea of how they'd perform as a Guide. Thank you for taking the time to go through Prep and for your patience during this long process and we wish you the best of luck in your future work.


Sincerely,

About.com Prep Instructor"

Insane Training
Prep school was really freaking INTENSE! I barely cleaned or cooked during the entire prep training, much to the horror of my husband and kids. And I created loads and loads of content during training. Guess I should try selling it somewhere, or starting my own Herb Garden site. But I don't have the energy right now to deal with it. Maybe the magic publishing/editing gods will come visit me and offer buckets of cash for all the herb garden stuff I've written in the past 18 days!?!

Consolation Prize
Oh well. I actually "met" the girl they choose to be the guide over on the Absolute Write forums. So I don't feel too bad. She is a herb nut like me and a terrific writer. She tried for another guide topic about a year ago, went through prep but wasn't offered the position at her last review. So I guess that means I shouldn't give up my dream of one day becoming a guide on About.com. But Herb Gardens, geeez, that was the PERFECT topic for me.


Pennies from Heaven
Well, now it's back to writing for pennies for all my online sites. About.com guarantees new guides a minimum of $725 per month for the first two years. Dang, I sure could have used that money!

Enough crabbing for now, time to go make a pot of coffee and drown myself in it!

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Absolute Write

March 13th 2008 18:03
Absolute Write
Absolute Write Logo


Have You Heard of Absolute Write?

I just joined the forum over on Absolute Write a few days ago. I had been looking for information on the About.com prep process for guides-in-training. I found a link on the Suite101 forums to the Absolute Write About.com thread. So I ran right over and signed up. The About.com thread on Absolute Write is over 90 pages so far!!! It contains TONS of information on writer's that have gone through or are going through the prep school to possibly become a guide for About.com.

But Absolute Write is a terrific resource of information on a wide variety of subjects. Fiction writing, freelance writing, self publishing, blogging, etc... So far I'm only using the forum but Absolute Write is a complete online writing community. It would take me weeks, months to go through all the information covered on the site.

Besides the forums, other major topics include: classes, market listing, store, editorial services and writer's directory.

Here's a blurb from the Absolute Write website:

"Welcome, writers! If you're interested in freelance writing, screenwriting, playwriting, writing novels, nonfiction, comic book writing, greeting cards, poetry, songwriting, or-- well, you get the idea-- you're in the right place. Thanks for visiting the one-stop web home for professional and beginning writers."

Absolute Write should be bookmarked by any serious writer.


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Google Loves Me, They Love Me Not

March 7th 2008 15:17
You might have noticed, my three Orble blogs haven't had any Google AdSense ads on them since February 28th. That is the day I recieved a generic email stating that they had disabled my adsense account. Couldn't really figure out why, they didn't give me any details. And I have 4 blogs setup up with adsense - one of which is on Blogspot which is owned by Google!

That very same day that I was booted out of adsense I started the prep training to possibly become a guide on About.com (see my previous post). So I didn't even have the time to try and figure out how/why I got booted out of the program.

Then today, out of the blue, I got another email from Google saying they have reinstated my adsense account. No explanation. So I have no clue. I don't know why my blogs were booted out of adsense and I don't know why they were reinstated. I'M TOTALLY CLUELESS!!!

So I just went back in to my 3 Orble blogs and placed ads back on them. Thanks to Orble's nifty editing tools, that only took about 3 seconds for each blog. Adding the adds back to my blogspot blog will have to wait for another day. I have to get code for individual add blocks and place html blocks in various sections of the blog - blah-blah-blah. Not difficult to do, just don't have the time to deal with it right now.

So my ad revenue from February is stll there. But they deleted the revenue which I made from September, 2007 through January, 2008. So it will still be awhile before I reach the $100 payout. And by then, who knows, maybe I'll get booted back out of the program.

I've never clicked on an ad in any of my blogs. I've never told anyone to click on an ad on my blogs. And Google won't give me details of why they booted me out of the program and then placed me back in it.

WEIRD!?!?!?!?!

Anyone else out there have problems with Google Adsense? I'd be curious to hear about it.

Take care,
Lynn
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About.com Guide Training

March 4th 2008 15:16
about.com logo
About.com Logo
Hello guys and gals!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. But I'm right smack dab in the middle of Guide Prep Training to possibly become a Guide on About.com!

I've applied to a total of 5 guide topics since September, 2007. I always got the "thanks for applying" message. Then 3-4 weeks later I'd get the generic email saying they already filled the position.

This is the first time I made it into prep training for one of the topic's I've applied to. It's a really intense, 17 day program. About.com says there could be up to 5 other GI's (Guide's In Training) in the prep program at the same time. At the end of the prep program they decide to hire one writer and make them the official About.com Guide for that topic.

I'm currently in the Herb Gardens prep training. Other topics I had applied to were all food related:
American Food
Local Foods
Culinary Arts
Herb & Spices

So at the end of the training, if I'm not picked for the position, I'll have TONS of time to get back to writing for my other sites!

Take care,
Lynn
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List Your Blog at Blog Universe

February 26th 2008 17:53

Blog Universe is a free directory submission site. You can add a free link to your blog as long as you put a reciprocal link to Blog Universe on your site. Once you have added the link to your site, go back to the Blog Universe site to fill out their submission form. They will ping your site to verify that the link code is present.

From the Blog Universe website:
"BlogUniverse is a project to gather all bloggers at one place and to categorize them so as it will be easy to search required blogs of various niche's easily.

Kindly support Us by submitting Blogs that you find interesting and good to read . All the bloggers will get get a quality linkback from us and that too for free."

Small Site
Right now there are only around 150 blogs listed in the directory. But a basic listing is free, and who doesn't want more traffic for their blog? They have a regular listing (no reciprocal linkback required) available for $3 and a featured link submission available for $6. Not a lot of money, but as there aren't very many blogs currently using this site, I don't see any benefit of paying for a featured link.

There also aren't a lot of categories currently available to submit your site to. Maybe once the site has been around awhile longer they will be adding additional categories.

A free link is a good link so check out Blog Universe and submit your blog to their directory.
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New Age Books for Freelance Writers

February 24th 2008 02:13
candle magic
Candle Magic
I started my freelance writer career writing for a variety of print publications. Over the years I've had a number of articles published in various Llewellyn Worldwide books. My articles have appeared in Llewellyn's yearly Herbal Almanac, Magical Almanac, Witches' Datebook and Witches' Calendar.

Writing for the New Age market can be quite profitable. If you are interested in writing in this genre, here are a few books you may find to be helpful. I have a number of them in my personal library which I refer to from time-to-time.

Are you interested in writing for Llewellyn Worldwide? Visit Llewellyn's website to view their complete writer's guidelines.

Reach for the moon with Llewellyn Reach for the moon with Llewellyn Reach for the moon with Llewellyn Reach for the moon with Llewellyn Reach for the moon with Llewellyn Reach for the moon with Llewellyn
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Work for Smorty

February 21st 2008 01:26
Do you Smorty?
Smorty acts as a go between to connect advertisers with bloggers. The bloggers receive offers to advertise on blogs

This is an interesting opprotunity for bloggers that you may want to check out. Bloggers can choose which opportunities to accept and get paid for blogging. The bloggers write a review of the advertisers product and post the review to their blog.

Get Paid to Blog
The minimum Smorty post payment is $6. Bloggers who have higher ranking blogs will be offered higher payments. If you have a really popular, high page ranked site you can make as much as $100 per post according to Smorty. Bloggers are paid through Paypal once their post has been approved by the advertiser. Smorty pays the bloggers weekly.

Bloggers are not simply placing an advertisement on their blog. You pick out which blog advertising opportunities you are interested in. Then you write your personal opinion on the product or services being offered by the advertiser. You have up to 24 hours from the time you claim a blogging opportunity to write the review, add it to your blog, then submit the details about the blog post to Smorty. Each post should be between 150-400 words.

Smorty Approval
I filled out an online application on 2/17/08 to have my Freelance Online Work blog accepted into the Smorty program. On 2/20/08 I received an email saying that my blog had been approved. You can submit more than one blog for approval into the Smorty program. Smorty lets you register up to 10 blogs with their site. Once I see how I like the program with my Freelance Online Work blog, I may decide to add my other blogs for approval.

Blog Advertising - Get Paid to Blog
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Suite101 Goes International

February 17th 2008 14:56
suite101 logo
Suite101 Logo
I've been writing for Suite101 since October, 2007. Suite101 is located in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. Suite101 is an English language online content provider which is a fantastic opportunity for freelance writers. See my post dated 1/22/08 for details on my experience writing for Suite101.

On Valentine's Day Suite101 made the following announcement:

Suite101.de Launches Feb 14! We love Germany!

germany suite101 logo
Suite101.de Logo


Today marks an inaugural moment in Suite history – the soft (beta) launch of our first international site, bringing 2000 articles to German readers across the pond in Deutschland. We’d like to congratulate our Editor-in-Chief in Berlin, Dirk Westphal, who has been working tirelessly toward this day since the fall, and his 140 personally-selected writers who have been writing articles at a dizzying pace behind the scenes. Our own superb tech team has also been at this for a year, so kudos to them as well. Today the curtain rises and the public will be able to visit the site and surf to their heart’s content.

A week from today, on February 21, we will have the official (hard) launch of the site and will begin taking writer applications and addressing the media. Our President, Peter Berger, and our Communications Director, Marci Hotsenpiller, will be on hand for press conferences and local meetings with journalists in Berlin, Munich, and points in between. To check out our sister site visit www.suite101.de and see what all the fuss is about!
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Squidoo Lens

February 11th 2008 02:09
squidoo
Squidoo Logo

Does anyone on the Orble blog network have any experience writing lenses over on Squidoo? Squidoo is a site that I have just started playing around with. So far I have setup five lenses on Squidoo.

  1. Magical Scriptorium - Fine Writing Supplies for the Discriminating Connoisseur
  2. Freelance Writer Lynn Smythe - links to all my writing sites
  3. The Bike Diva - companion site to my Bike Diva blog
  4. Freelance Online Writing - resources & tips for freelance writers and companion site to my Freelance Online Work blog
  5. The Moon is Made of Cheese- A silly Monkey Brain debate site I setup on Squidoo.

Unlike a blog, a lens is a single page of information concentrating on one particular topic. A lens does not have to be updated very often, compared to a blog that should have fresh content added to it 3-5 days per week for maximum appeal. Squidoo has a number of modules which can be added to each lens. For example, a few of the lens modules I am currently using on my Bike Diva lens include:

  • RSS Feed from the Bike Diva blog
  • U-Tube video on a training road bike ride that I participated in
  • Links to cycling books for sale on Amazon
  • Links to cycling related merchandise for sale on Cafe Press
  • What's your favorite bike poll
  • RSS Feed from On Your Mark Performance Center blog
  • Flickr cycling photos
  • Delicious cycling bookmarks
  • Links to cycling blog posts on Google

The lens modules such as Amazon, Cafe Press, E-bay and other business modules, give you the opportunity to earn affiliate revenue from your lens. Lens making is totally new to me, so I am waiting to see if I will actually start to make any money from my lenses or not. Squidoo also places Google AdSense ads on each of your lenses and shares a portion of the adsense revenue with each lens creator.

Squidoo recommends making multiple lenses if you want to start making any revenue. They say that single lenses, with rare exception, usually don't make a significant amount of money for the lens owner. I already have ideas for 20 more lenses that I want to create. I'm in no rush to get these new lenses up and running so I'm thinking that adding around 5 new lenses per month would be a reasonable goal.

Do you Squidoo? Let me know if you have any lenses on Squidoo and maybe we can trade links. Hub Pages is a site that is similar to Squidoo. I'll be researching Hub Pages in the future and will let you know when I find out more information about that site

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Update on Google AdSense

February 5th 2008 16:48
lynn smythe
Blog Mistress Lynn Smythe
On January 9th, I posted a blog about my three month earning history with Google AdSense.

My earrning reports are in for the month of January so I just wanted to give you a quick update. I finally figured out how to set up seperate channels for each of my blogs so now I can see exactly how much each one is earning. Prior to setting up the channels, all my earnings were lumped into one report so I had no way of knowing which blog was outperforming the others.

Here is the breakdown of my earnings so far:

October - 75 cents
November - $2.62
December - $3.38
January - $24.51

Wow!!!! Why has January taken off? Well, part of it is because two of my blogs are now 4 months old and finally starting to generate a decent amount of traffic. The Pagan Path blog has actually been earning a few more $$ than the I Love Herbs blog. I think this is because there are tons of herb sites out there, and the search term herbs is rather generic. So I don't think the ads that are showing up on I Love Herbs are that unique.

Paganism Pays?
Why does the pagan site generate a bit more revenue? At first this seemed puzzling - there are a ton more herb sites on the internet than pagan sites. But that is probably why I am getting higher ad revenue. Although there are fewer pagans in the world than herbalists there aren't that many pagan blog sites out there which means there isn't as much competition for pagan readers as compared to herbal readers. And most of the ads on my pagan blog are much more specific than the more generic ads showing up on my herb blog. So the ads on the pagan blog are getting a much higher click through.

Another reason why my ad revenue took off for the month of January was that on December 27th I took over the inactive Freelance Online Work blog that was in Orble's blog cemetary. I don't post that often to the freelance site compared to my other blogs but when I do they get a fantastic amount of readers. And they get quite a few ad clicks.

Freelancing is Hot
Freelancing is a very hot topic right now. Everybody and their brother is investigating freelance opportunities as a way to generate some extra income in addition to their day jobs. My engineering friend, my middle management friend, and my former English teacher friend have all been picking my brains about how to get started making money as an online freelance writer. I am certainly no expert but according to them I am. I investigate freelancing opportunities almost daily and often click on the ads I find on other freelancing sites.

Other Freelancing Sites
Speaking of other freelancing sites, be sure to check out Writer's Notes here on the Orble network. Besides being full of fantastic information, Writer's Notes blogger Jeanne Dininni is a really friendly person and will answer any questions you may have regarding her blog posts. Jeanne just celebrated the one year annivesary of her blog.

Additional Information
I just set up my first blogger blog - http://herbalapothecary.blogspot.com. I want to see how that site performs in comparison to my three Orble blogs. So I will be posting details on that blogging network in the future. Blogger/blogspot is owned by Google. I've earned a whole penny on Herbal Apothecary so far, but it's a brand new site so it will take it awhile before it starts to generate any traffic.
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Know More Media

February 2nd 2008 03:43
know more media logo
KMM Logo
Here's a business based website that is looking for more writers to write for their blog network.

Write for Know More Media
Know More Media invites you to become a contributing author to our blog network specializing in business information and news. We seek topical experts who are also savvy at blogging and building online readership; you must be committed to growing the blog's traffic and understand how to network online. We want people who can write with a clear, strong, competent, and honest voice. If you have a passion, knowledge, or expertise in a certain business topic or industry, you may be an ideal candidate to become a Know More Media Author.

Get paid to write from anywhere you can find an Internet connection. Authors typically earn from $150 - $1000 per month, receiving a combined compensation for each article/blog post, blog traffic, and other earnings opportunities. All authors are expected to publish at least one post a day, 5 days a week, as well as perform the blog promotion and networking necessary for blog traffic growth and the success of online media.

Why become a Know More Media Author?
Make money writing!
Get instantly published.
Work from home or any location where you can connect to the Internet.
Establish your reputation as an expert in a field.
Expand your expertise on a topic.
Write what you want without supervisory editing
Increase promotion for your personal business endeavors
Hone and improve your writing and research skills through daily usage.
Take part in the future of online publishing and media—blogging.
Join a leading network of business experts.

What We Look for in an Author
Passion. You must love the topic—possess a passion for it. You must have a passion to succeed and grow your blog's readership and traffic. You’ll be writing on it extensively; if you don’t have a love for it, you will never endure. Plus, this passion will shine through in your writing; it will be infectious.

Business Expertise
You must be a personal expert in your topic or field. Know More Media is a place where information seekers come to find new information, new advice, and original opinions. If you can only re-hash what everyone else is saying on the topic, sorry, but you’re not a fit for us. We want expertise from its source—you.

Writing Ability
Superior blogging is both what you say and how you say it. Great writing is the ability to transform your thoughts, feelings, and knowledge into the written word in a lucid, concise, and entertaining manner. Can you edit out your own typos? Do you use proper grammar? Can you express yourself clearly? We don’t edit your content for you—you must be able to do it yourself.

A Voice
As we like to say, “It’s all about the voice.” Plain, boring, dry toast, just-tell-the-facts writing is not what we want. We want personality; we want uniqueness; we want you to have a singular, identifiable voice that people want to listen to.

Further Information
Visit the writer's guidelines page on the Know More Media website to find out more information including the blogging topics that are currently available.

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Our First Award

January 28th 2008 16:33
comment star award
Comment Star Award
Freelance Online Work just received it's first award today!
Jeanne, from Writer's Notes just posted a blog about her site turning one year old. In the blog she is thanking all the people that she has shared information with during the last year and who have made a number of comments on her site.

Our Award
Jeanne is giving everyone that has helped Writer's Note become so popular virtual awards. Freelance Online Work received a Comment Star Award.

From Jeanne's website:

Some Gifts for My Friends
I know, I know, it's my blog birthday--but I still want to give away a few gifts to show my blogging friends how much I appreciate each one of you! Call them "party favors" if you like, but here are a few gifts I'd like to present to my friends and fellow bloggers. (These gifts and recipients are in no particular order.

Comment Star Award
This gift is for the people who have faithfully commented here at Writer's Notes on a regular basis, helping me not to feel as if I'm talking to myself! Thanks, everyone! You are what this blog is all about!

About Writer's Notes
Helping Writers Follow Their Dreams Through Information, Inspiration, and Encouragement!

Thanks for the award Jeanne!!
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Earn Money on Social Networking Site

January 28th 2008 00:20
ximmy logo
Ximmy.com Logo


How social networking can make you money

Pasadena, CA - January 17, 2008: Ximmy.com, a newly launched social networking web site, earns money for its users even as they share news, videos, pictures and web sites.

“The unique thing about Ximmy.com is that it allows users to earn rewards for participating by submitting and publishing articles and posting comments,” says Richard Ung, Senior Executive of Ximmy.com. “Users earn points through submissions that can be accumulated and redeemed for cash.”

We are the first company to reward you for your contributions to our community through points that you can redeem for cash. Just register for an account. (It's free!) You will earn points for submitting stories and posting comments. When your story is published to the home page, you will receive 15 points. Once you hit a points bracket, you can redeem the points for cash at any time. Payments are made via PayPal.

Points Earn:
1 point - Story Submitted
1 point - Comment
15 points - Popular (homepage)

Points Rewards
1,000 = $10
1,800 = $20
3,200 = $40
6,000 = $80
12,000 = $160
20,000 = $300

Bonus:
Once you hit any of the points bracket, you'll receive an extra $20 bonus during payout.(Expires 6/01/08)

Please visit our FAQs for more details. Got questions?

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Write for WebbleYou

January 15th 2008 04:03
webbleyou logo
WebbleYou Logo
A New Blog Site
WebbleYou is a new blog site I just discovered about 2 weeks ago. They pay blog authors 70% of any revenue generated from their blog. Revenue can be generated in a couple of ways: from Google AdSense ads that are placed on your blog or from targeted ads that WebbleYou sells to third parties which are placed on your blog. You can also setup Amazon affiliate links to books of interest that are related to your blog and you will retain any revenue generated this way.

Looking for Writers
WebbleYou is looking for writer's to write for existing blogs and to suggest topics for new blogs. The benefit in writing for an existing blog is that they already have recognition on Google and will have a higher page rank than a newer blog. A higher page rank generally means higher ad revenue.

Suggest a Blog
I wasn't interested in sharing ad revenue with other writer's so instead of applying to write for an existing blog I suggested a new topic for my own blog. My Bike Diva blog went live on WebbleYou earlier today. It's still so new that my banner logo hasn't even been added to my site yet.

Generating Revenue
WebbleYou says it can take up to a month before you may start earning any income. It usually takes at least a month for Google to recognize your site so before this time your Google AdSense ads might not be related to what you are blogging about. You also have to have your site established for awhile before WebbleYou will start to look for companies that they think will be interested in purchasing ads to be placed on your blog.

WebbleYou pays you through Paypal but unlike having to wait until you accumulate $100 in AdSense revenue to be paid by Google, WebbleYou will pay you as soon as you start generating income.

So, it's still too early to tell what kind of income, if any, I will make on WebbleYou. But I thought it would be interesting to see how it compared to other blog sites such as Orble.com. It sounds like there is potential to earn more on WebbleYou than on Orble so I'll keep you updated in the coming months.

Word Press
The WebbleYou blogs use the Word Press software. I am brand new to this program but WebbleYou has their site setup so you don't really have to know how to use Word Press. But if you know or take the time to learn Word Press I'm sure you could customize your blog with all kinds of bells and whistles.

Blog Network
WebbleYou only has 30 blogs in its network so far. So unlike Orble, you aren't going to have a lot of readers coming in from the other blogs. So you are going to have to spend a lot more time advertising/linking your site to other sites in order to find readers. But if you have an idea for a really hot topic it could do quite well. Their Caffeist blog already has a Google page rank of 4!

For more information visit the WebbleYou blog network site to find out how you can join the WebbleYou network.
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