Looking Back

Can I make a living writing for Associated Content? I have seen this question a lot lately as I searched through the pages here attempting to find a subject that hadn't been covered too much to write about. I am rethinking the way that I do things and I've decided to split my time writing up between sites that allow me to pick my subjects. You will notice that at this time I only have 138 articles here even though I've been a member of the site since August of 2007.

There is a reason for that, I was busy with other writing sites and private clients that guaranteed my income goals were met for the most part. I decided to take last summer off to focus on therapy for my youngest and write things that I wanted to. When the school year began I felt that a return to private clients would be too stressful and have only had one client since then out of necessity to cover unplanned expenses. I found that I was rather stressed out during the week I had to complete that project even though it was broken down into easily achievable milestones.

I have been taking my time over the last year in an effort to avoid getting too exhausted but my income suffered. So far I've managed to scrape by but I've also seen an increase in stress especially during the last two months. My husband is employed with the city as a crossing guard, it was the only job that he could find after being unemployed for two years. The job is seasonal and part time, the summer means no paycheck unless he files for unemployment and a lump sum payment from that will mess everything else up for a year after it occurs.

Planning for the summer meant that I examined all of our expense and what I had to do very carefully. There was however a flaw in my plans. I neglected to figure in unexpected repairs. I also forgot to get everything together for the guests that we are expecting at the end of summer because I wasn't sure if they would be coming down or not. Now I find myself waiting for the heat and the thunderstorms to give us even a short break in order to get the yard prepared and treat fire ants so that are guests are not attacked by them.

I've decided to take advantage of the heat and rain to write while I can't work in the yard. The days I spend working in the yard will have to be those that I manage to get up early in the morning or stay up an hour or two after the little one goes to bed in order to get work done too. I have to spend at least an hour a day writing on something, anything to ensure that my mind does not go blank again. I plan to write some articles that will be submitted for upfront payment and if they are declined I plan to take the notes to improve upon them as much as I can and resubmit them at least once before hitting the display only option.

First person editorials such as these will be posted immediately as display only to ensure that I have something that can be read and might be helpful to someone else. I think that by writing my thoughts for the world to see at least one person might find they have a similar experience. The comments on my articles give me ideas for other articles and subjects that I want to learn more about. In the meantime I'll be be working on finding things that I can write quickly because they interest me then go back and edit later to ensure that I have managed to keep on track and avoid as many errors as possible.

As to whether or not I can make a living writing for Associated Content alone I'm still determining that. I'm not sure if I will begin to experiment the way that others have anytime soon but I think that it is worth looking into. After all the way the articles are displayed is a lot more appealing than some other sites I have seen. I created a scenario some time ago that had the details worked out of whether or not I could make a living writing for Associated Content but I have yet to put it into practice to see if it was feasible. I know that at the moment I am writing for three sites, two of them I post my own work on and the third I pick and choose what I write for other people.

In the meantime I will be writing what I want to write in an effort to earn money without stressing myself out. I have got to find the time to write, therapy is typically when I spend time making my schedule but lately I haven't even been able to focus enough to do that. I am hoping that I will be able to increase the number of articles that I have to 200 by the end of the year. That is a reasonable goal considering that there are still five months left in the year and that would only require sixty-two articles in that time.

More from Laurie:

Can I Make a Living Online Again?

Are Private Clients the Answer

Changing Habits to Make up for rising costs