But I’ve had an idea. Several jewelry designs have been swimming around in my head and most involve religious symbols (fish, fish hook, cross, etc). What if I picked one of the designs for each of the building funds, and donated the profits of each? It’s true that I haven’t had much luck in selling my jewelry, but at the same time, I haven’t listed much of it either!

What about you? Do you have a favorite charity that you don’t have much money to spare for? March of Dimes, Heiffer International, etc? Is there anything that you could sell? Old clothes on eBay, or maybe your scrapbooking skills? Sometimes giving doesn’t have to hurt, and sometimes it’s a good hurt.

Since I also have a nasty head cold (not a typical cold though- more a matter of congested sinuses and a fuzzy head with an inability to focus), I’m going to leave any attempts at freelance work for a while until I can catch up on my personal projects.

My go-between asked me to notify her when I’m back from vacation, so I hope she’ll bear with me while I recouperate.

I also want to test the waters with article marketing and see just what my pay rate with AC will be now that I’ve jumped up to the next rank. Perhaps even submit a few more articles to Helium (I started out when they were having a contest last year- I made a few bucks, but I’d really like to reach pay out). And I need to figure out how to attach a file to WordPress blogs so that I can post another how-to to VixenCrafts. I’ve been receiving a steady stream of search engine traffic to that site, and I’d like to keep it updated.

I’ve also decided that while I do plan to keep my “I Feel Like Chatting” blog, I will probably be using it more as a “I wrote this here, wrote this here, and updated this today” kind of blog. With the occassional post that doesn’t fit in anywhere else (which is mostly what I’m using it for now).

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, and I’m still working on catching up to all of your blogs. I’ve been through a few today, but I’ve got lots more to go through. And that’s not even counting the industry blogs. Yeesh.

Still, I made and took pictures of 4 projects over the weekend. One project turned out so good, I did it 4 times. Can’t help it, I loved the result. Oh wait, actually, 2 of the projects I did 4 times apiece. I may sneak a pic or two up later on. I have 3 or 4 more projects waiting to be done some time this week. The only thing that worries me is that most of my current projects are Christmas related. I’m hoping that’s only because it’s that season, otherwise my site will have very limited appeal.

On the upside, when my husband got home from Christmas shopping, he looked at me sitting cross legged on the floor surrounded by bits of paper, felt, glue and a torn up grocery bag, and simply said, “Well, one thing’s for certain. You’re in the wrong business, babe.”. At first I panicked thinking he hated everything I made (he’s anti-jewelry, so maybe he’s anti-craft too?). So I asked him which business. He said “Administrative or whatever it is you do at work.” Poor boy looked completely bewildered that I hadn’t assumed he meant my day job.

So, I’m very happy with my husband right now (intelligent man with good taste- as long as he likes what I make), happy with how my project/s is/are going, happy with my freelancing goals, and only a bit disappointed with my fiction progress.

There are a few How To articles that I was going to write for Associated Content, but I wanted to use pictures and you can only add them to the one section. I thought about starting a blog for it, but since I wouldn’t likely post much between how-to’s, it seems a little pointless. I considered separate Squidoo lenses for each project. That would work, and I’d get paid for it, but I couldn’t monetize the way I’d prefer since Associated Content would pay me up front and for each view. The ads I’d get with Squidoo would probably not be as much.

My husband wants me to start my own website. Now, I realize that this is because he heard about the 17 year old who made 17 million dollars from ad revenue on her site/s, but if it works in my favor…

Now, I know that I wouldn’t likely make enough to pay the ‘net bills off a website. It would have to be hugely popular, which isn’t likely if I’m the only one posting how-to’s. However, I’d always planned to have my own website to sell my jewelry. I’m thinking that I could combine the two. I could even add the jewelry making blog that I was going to start (the one on my profile doesn’t count- that was my first blog ever and I didn’t know what I was doing) to the site.

I’m not sure what I want to do, but I’ve been thinking about it pretty constantly since Hubby brought the subject up. I know that I can non-exclusive it and put the articles everywhere, but that’s only a temporary fix. I’m looking down the road and wondering where I want to be. And if I can even get there.

So, that’s why I haven’t been speaking up much lately. I’ve got a lot of thinking that I’ve been doing about where I want my life to go, and in which direction to focus my writing. I’m not good at decisions. I like options. But people who try to keep all their options open, never actually get any of them.

Opinions? Ideas?

(also, I know that I haven’t mentioned craft magazines- that’s another thing I’m looking into)

I did put up a profile though- just in case. If you missed my previous post on it, here’s my NaNoWriMo profile. Drop me a comment with your profile if you want me to add you as friend. I’ve only got two so far.

Well, I’ve actually been taking steps towards getting freelance work. I’ve replied to several ads that I found on Deb NG’s job blog (haven’t heard back from any of them, but at least I tried). I contacted freelancer about a job she wanted to outsource (I pulled out since the job looked quite large. I think I could have done it, but I didn’t want to be practicing on her reputation).

And now… I made my first bid ever. Woot! It took me about 45 minutes to make my bid since I was reading all the small print that I could find. I’m still nervous that I may have missed something. It’s a fairly small job, and they gave a lot of information on what they wanted, so I’m confident that if I’m chosen, I’ll be able to do it properly. Now I just have to wait to see who they choose. If I have time tonight, I’ll scroll through the jobs that have been posted since I last looked.

I may not be jumping into the whirlpool, but at least I’m not standing at the edge just looking anymore. I’ve got time, but darnit, I’m going to get it done.

I still need new garb for Renn Faire, which I make. I’m trying to get my husband to at least discuss possible dates for our next trip to Walt Disney World. Our bedroom and office desperately need to be cleaned out. I have to cook since my husband A.) can’t, B.) won’t, and C.) ruins my good pans when he tries. My cousins whom I haven’t seen in over 10 years are visiting, and I just want to sleep.

I’ve been thinking about this for a few days and have considered that I might raise my productivity significantly if I drop one or a dozen of the above items. My cousins are leaving Sunday morning, and if I took this weekend to really clean I could probably ignore that for a few weeks. Ok, I do that anyway, but this way I wouldn’t feel guilty about it. AC is practically guaranteed money no matter how little it is, and I’m enjoying building lenses entirely too much. I’ve promised 4 book reviews, and I have 5 cds to review- but I can take a break from those once I’ve finished. And I don’t really need new garb. The needlework can wait or sit around for when I’m particularly stressed, and if I can focus on something else it might help with my desperation for Disney.

I think most of what it comes down to is blogging or fiction. Obviously I don’t have to give up blogging entirely, nor do I need to stop reading blogs. However, I’m starting to think that it might be better to only read blogs every two to three days instead of every day. I already only post every few days, but I waste too much time “planning” to post.

Mostly, I need to lose my dreamer attitude. Not my dreams- that would be horrific in a writer. But the dreamer attitude has to go. Anyway- if you notice that traffic seems to drop by one or two clicks a day, don’t worry. I’m still reading, just not as often.

So, I’ve spent the past few days signing up for Technorati, Digg, Blogmad (that was a random find, but highly addictive), and trying to figure out how del.icio.us works. I think I’ve finally figured it out, but I haven’t had time to do anything about it yet.

I’ve also started a blog for BandVox.com here to help publicize BandVox, and to entertain myself with posting material that doesn’t actually fit the genre I post about on the site.

Beyond that, I wrote an article that I’d originally intended for Associated Content, but which became much more in depth than their pay is worth. So, I’m having my husband read it over so he can tell me if it’s worth pursuing a clip-worthy publication with it, or if the focus is too narrow. There’s the thing, if I only write about what I want to write about, and on my own schedule, I won’t be able to get much work for clip-worthy publications. I do write for TitleTrakk, which is definitely clip-worthy, but I only write reviews there. I don’t know if reviews are enough on their own to count much towards a resume. If anyone knows more about that, please comment.

I’ve also decided to write a bit for Helium. You can post articles there, earn a few cents a day/week/month and let it build toward payout (minimum $25), and re-post the article to Associated Content as non-exclusive and make a couple extra dollars on the same article. I have one article that’s earning very quickly- so I figure if I spend a few weeks, write maybe 20 articles, I should be able to reach payout at least every 3 months. No, it’s not alot, but once I’ve written those articles I won’t have to do much there after that, and the articles will keep earning.

I’ve also set a goal for myself regarding writing income. For the next three months I want to bring in a minimum of $20 a week. For the next three months, I want to bring in a minimum of $100 a week. After that, I want to make as close to full time money as I can.

Since my husband and I are trying to start a family, I have a minimum (most likely I’ll have plenty more time than that) of nine months to be making full time (or close to) income from my writing and jewelry making. That means a lot of work in the mean time, and that building multiple passive revenue streams are a must. Right now I have a few that I’m working on: AdSense, Helium, and Amazon Affiliate. The odds of any of them reaching payout by the end of a year are slim, and payout isn’t alot unless you’re making it on a weekly basis. But once I’m ready to leave the mainstream workforce and enter the Work-At-Home force, that little extra could tip the balance.

I also need to work on my confidence level so that I can begin bidding on writing projects. That’s the best way that I know of to be able to start bringing in a viable writing income quickly. Unfortunately, I’m terrified of bidding on a project that I’m not qualified for, and screwing up my reputation or disappointing a client. Has anyone else dealt with this?