News Update

Oh NPR, I love how your modulated voices and neutral reports scare the living sh*t out of me, even more than the sensationalized mainstream media. Your deadpan delivery on how the largest unemployed demographic is the under-24, newly graduated crowd (25-30%), and that we're skewing the national unemployment figures, make me feel oddly comforted and depressed at the same time, like the moment when you finally admit you have the flu.

I couldn't find links to the actual newscast I'm referring to (I heard it on Morning Edition and unsuccessfully tried to find it on their website), but I'm including a few related articles, chock-full of other unemployment fun facts.

Fed: Expect Higher Unemployment

Obama: Education a Key to Economic Rebound (Mr. President, did you hear the newly educated are unemployed?)

This one's from Business Week, but equally heartening (schadenfreude, anyone?): Even the Employed Lose with Hour and Wage Cuts

First Paycheck

I have officially received my first payments as a freelance writer, a grand total of $13.27 from Associated Content, which I strongly recommend you check out if you're interested in a writing career. They don't offer a whole ton of money per article, I had to turn in 6 articles to earn that $13-and-change, but with a little hard work you can turn it into a source of income.

Note to self: time to try "a little hard work"!

What Not to Do

A note to other aspiring eHow writers out there: don't miss the "Suggested Articles" postings. You can come up with how-to articles on your own, but the eHow editors come up with topics they need articles on, and post 50-100 a week. I try to snap these up because they get more views and earn you more "points." I'm not really sure how points work, but the more I get the more money I seem to make, so I'll play along.

I can't figure out if they submit a new batch on Mondays or Tuesdays, but I missed it this week and wrote a grand total of two Suggested Articles. I'm pretty disappointed because after the 27 article marathon last week, my earnings have been steadily increasing. Now I guess I have to rely on my own brain for article ideas. I should probably invest in some sort of planner.

I did submit one more article to Associated Content, though, a post from my other blog. And I got my first accepted article from the first batch I submitted. Woo, $3.22.

Hard Work and Research

I have accomplished 2/3rds of my goals. I wrote 27 articles for eHow this week, bringing my grand total to 33 articles and quintupling my earnings. Before anyone breaks out the confetti and champagne - my earnings as still less than the $10 minimum total eHow requires before they will pay me, but I'm looking at this as daily encouragement. Surf on over to my eHow profile to see my articles, maybe help me pay some bills, etc.

I also rewrote a bunch of home improvement articles I had sitting around and submitted them to Associated Content. If I'm really good, this coming week I will rewrite them yet again and submit them to Constant Content. I'm torn because if Associated Content rejects them I can submit them to Constant Content without the re-rewrite. But I need to remind myself that laziness does not a good freelancer make. It should be my new motto.

So next up is to research other websites I can start writing for, namely Guru, eLance and iFreelance. I need to find some sites where I can bid on work, because coming up with my own ideas is what I am worst at (a reason I am not a creative writer, probably). Any suggestions will be accepted gladly and with serious consideration

Discouragement

Let's just say that earning $0.27 does not make for an encouraging start to a new career. Add that to a tough week, a heat wave, and an offer of janitorial work that sadly got me excited (hey, a girl's gotta eat), I just about threw in the towel.

The day after writing my eHow articles, I'd earned $0.27 from 38 views and was pretty excited. Three days later, with +100 views and no change in my earnings, I felt like the wiffle bat of reality had clocked me good. I moped the rest of the week, refused to check my eHow profile, and spent the 4th of July holiday telling people I was looking for work in my originally-intended career. So yes, I had a little pity party for myself.

My earnings have since gone over the $1 mark and the wiffle bat came back to beat into me that I don't need to change my plans, I need to stop thinking that this was going to be so easy. So I'm back to work on eHow, and promised myself that I will start submitting things to Constant Content, Associated Content, or a similar freelance site. No more wussing out.