Two Chickens in Every Pot

Ghostwriter Lol! Lately, I'm thrilled with the way things are going with my writing. Blogmutt, the content company I write for, recently sent out an e-mail saying they've had an influx of new customers over the last few weeks, so there is plenty of work to go around. They aren't kidding! It has gotten so much easier to find easy writing assignments to do that I can find something to write virtually any time. I highly recommend them and plan to continue to write for them even though I also have a direct client that keeps me pretty busy. The Pay Blogmutt pays eight dollars for a 250-word post, so on those posts, you can make 3.2 cents per word. If a client directly requests you, you can make ten percent more and write posts revolving around the same subject for a while. Not only that but once you get enough points from writing and selling posts, you can unlock longer assignments on better subjects, presumably because there is less competition at t...

One thing you need to know about me is that I tend to go all out on things. When the weather changes, I get on a crockpot kick. I don't mean I just make stew or chili one day to kick off the fall season--I mean, I start trying to figure out a way to make breakfast, dinner, and dessert in the crockpot. Right now, I'm in one of those phases. That said, I've learned from years of crockery-cooking experience that there are some things that, in my opinion, just aren't as good in the crockpot. I prefer to cook certain dishes, including meatloaf and spaghetti, the old-fashioned way, but many other things are great in the crockpot. Although I've been slow-cooking since I was a newlywed, I've made very few desserts, so I am excited about experimenting in that area this crockpot season. As I am writing this, I have a peach upside-down cake going in--you guessed it--the crockpot. I'm not sure how it will look, but I have high hopes that it will be edible enough t...

Photo by  J. Kelly Brito  on  Unsplash I haven't posted in a while since I've been busy writing for a new client. Yes, that's right, I now have someone I write for directly, so I'm making more money. The person who hired me followed my blog in the past, so it does pay off to have a personal blog. Writing in the Morning Works Best For Me Cutting out the middleman is definitely the way to go, but I am still struggling a little bit with time management since my husband's schedule has been inconsistent, and there has been a lot going on in our lives this summer. Hopefully, our family will have a more predictable routine soon, and now that I'm getting over this cold, I should be able to do more writing at my most productive time of day, which is early in the morning. Writing for Blogmutt The Blogmutt articles that I wrote a few weeks ago are starting to sell one by one, so it's nice to have those eight dollar payo...

As promised, I am posting this update on my recent adventures in writing for content sites. I've done extensive online research and applied at several different websites, but I will only be reviewing the companies that have worked out for me. I've done the hard work for you by narrowing the list down to just these three: Article Document I haven't made much money yet writing for Article Document , but I really like it. I have written ten articles for them, and they included my "byline," which means my name has been published with each article. This allows me to have some writing samples to show prospective clients. The editors at Article Document are very nice, and I learned a new rule about using hyphens from their constructive feedback. I do not consider them a "mill" because they are so different from other content sites. Article Document seems like it would be bette...

Photo by The Creative Exchange on Unsplash With a large family, dishes and laundry are a much bigger deal, making it easy to become overwhelmed. If you need to do a load of laundry every day and run your dishwasher twice a day on top of everything else, then you might be a mom with several children. The following tips will help you crawl out of that rut when your house is out of control. When You Know How to Clean But Lack Motivation It's not that you don't know how to clean your home--you probably just lack the motivation. Because keeping house is a never-ending job, it can seem futile trying to clean a house full of people--especially when some of those people are small children that are unable to do much to help. It probably won't take as long as you think to get everything done--you just have a mental block. Keep Those Machines Running Think of your home as a factory. The dishwasher, washer, and dryer are machines that need to be running much of the time, and c...

Revenue Sharing Articles with a Byline! Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash I've discovered a new website to write for, which I am pretty excited about. It's called Article Document , and here's how it works. You start out writing articles for them that are "revenue sharing," which means you get paid ongoing royalties based on how many views the article gets. The best thing about the revenue sharing posts is that I get a "byline," meaning my name is at the bottom of the article. This will allow me to start a portfolio of my published work, which I can show to potential clients. The revenue sharing probably won't add up to much money unless a post goes viral, but it's only the first step... Ghost Writing Journalist Articles Once you have ten articles accepted that are rated a seven or above by Article Document's editors, you get to unlock "journalism" assignments they pay you for upfront. T...

I started homeschooling about ten years ago, so I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work for our family. Everyone’s situation is different, but I’ve decided to share the following tips, which will hopefully give you some ideas to implement in your own homeschool. We have a large family and will have four students in the upcoming school year, but the following tips could apply to any sized homeschool: Stay Organized With Binders Each of my homeschooled children has his or her own binder. I select quality binders with built-in zip compartments for pencils, and the binders themselves zip for containing any loose books. Keeping just about everything in these binders makes it easy for the kids to take their work on the road when we travel or just have errands to run. It also allows me to check all of their work at once or quickly have someone move to another work station. I also have my own binder for myself as the teacher, and there is ...

For the last couple of weeks, I've been writing off and on throughout the day, but I really want to start limiting my content mill work to early mornings when the kids are still in bed. While I'm writing those content mill articles, I tend to feel agitated when interrupted. For one thing, the subjects I've had to write about lately aren't that fun. For another, I find myself checking the time while I do them and then working as fast as I can to prove I'm getting a decent hourly rate. Staying Present Most of my day is dedicated to quality time with my family, and of course, housework. That said, I don't mind doing a little bit of light work on the computer when I'm in the same room as my kids--like writing this blog post. Because right now, I'm present. I'm sitting in the living room with my four youngest children. I know that the bathtub is filling up for the first of three baths that need to ha...

       Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash Writing for a content mill is the quickest way to start earning a few bucks from home with your writing, but at 1.3 cents a word, it’s not very lucrative. If you’re a perfectionist like I am, you’ll find yourself going over an article again and again, which makes for a quality piece but decreases your hourly pay rate. Necessary Skills The good news is that you will gain experience as a writer, hopefully leading to landing better-paying gigs. Writing on your own blog is much different than writing in “AP Style” and to a client’s specifications, but those things are easier than they sound. Including the client’s requested “keywords” in a natural way is pretty much a no brainer that I was nailing from day one, so I won’t even go into that in this post. If you have good grammar and punctuation skills and a knack for wording things, you’ll probably just need to fine-tune a few weak areas. Comma Rules It was easy fo...

   Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash So I made a little over 19 bucks today, and I'm exhausted. The last piece I submitted this afternoon before breaking to make dinner seemed way more valuable than the eight bucks I got paid to write it. I don't mind selling content about mundane subjects like shipping methods or eyelash extensions. But that last post was about a subject I was actually interested in--writing guest blog posts. Now my baby will be out there in cyberspace with somebody else's name on it. It's been adopted by a less capable parent who won't fully appreciate it...Can you tell it's been a long day? Gaining Experience I'm not complaining, though- I'm thankful to be able to work from home, and I'm looking at this as a learning experience. I am using the feedback I am getting, both positive and negative, to help me grow as a writer. Much Needed Break I was feeling a little depressed holed up in my room a lot of the d...

    I haven't blogged in a while since I've been pursuing other hobbies lately--not to mention our recent major move back to our home state, but I'm back to writing again, and I'm praying that this time I'll be able to make a decent living at it. So I'm back to posting on this blog, which will be a place to discuss my writing adventures mixed in with the usual fun household stuff I like to write about.  I'm Writing for a Content Mill It has taken me several days of applying at various websites to figure out what pays and what doesn't, but I am now officially working from home as a freelance writer!  So far, I have found one "content mill" that had a pretty straightforward registration process and seems to have plenty of work. I won't post the company's name here because I don't need any competition at this point, but I may give out the information in the fut...