Just a couple of hours work to fit in this morning before I can start my weekend. How much time do you allow yourself off if you work as a full time online writer? Freelance writing jobs can take up huge swathes of your day if you let them. I must admit I’ve taken a few years to find a reasonably good balance between work and play. It never pays to book yourself absolutely solid because if anything happens (like a gas leak for example ) you are stuck and running behind before you’ve even done anything.

We have family visiting today as it’s half term, so I get to see my nieces and nephew (and my sister). I’ll sleep well tonight no doubt as I’m cooking a roast dinner for 6 tonight. But having said that, I will also be fully recharged for Monday when I get back to work again. It’s no good working yourself to the bone and running your batteries down; you have to give yourself decent chunks of time off if you want to write to your best ability.

So to that end, I am off to enjoy a weekend of relaxation. Enjoy yours, and I will be back on Monday with more updates. It’s been a quiet week but a good one too. No jobs to report in terms of my Google Reader searches, but that’s not a problem. I’ll be back fresh with more job searches and online writing to do next week.

Well we had a lovely evening last night and despite having had a glass or two of gorgeous White Cloud wine (from New Zealand, do try it if you’re a white wine lover!) I’m up and ready for work as usual this morning. Today’s work is split between articles and blogs; no larger projects to work on at the moment, such as eBooks for example. Mind you, I had a period of time the other week where I found myself working on two simultaneously, so perhaps I’ll get another two together very soon. Who knows? That’s the beauty of freelance writing jobs.

I haven’t put times of certain tasks today, because I’ve been steadily working through them during the day. I’ve just finished everything on my list to do for today, except for my own article for the latest website we have to publish. Normally I’ll do that kind of thing first (or at least early on in the day) but it just didn’t work out that way today. However it shouldn’t take too long to do so I’ll slot that in right after I publish this blog post.

It’s been a quiet week so far but it’s actually worked out really well because it’s given me time to achieve some personal writing goals. I’ve also got a long weekend coming up so I’ll be off over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so I’d lose a couple of working days there anyway. I’d rather be off during a quiet week and then get back into the swing of things next week.

I’ve been checking out my Google Reader feeds every lunchtime this week, but there’s been nothing of real interest there job wise. That’s quite normal – there can be huge swathes of time where no online writing jobs worth applying for will pop up. To be honest, I get far better results from simply Googling certain phrases to see what pops up. I’ve found an excellent new client as a result of doing just that so far this year, so I’m happy! Right – on with that article, then I’ve got a relaxing evening ahead of me. Enjoy!

Whoa – one third of the way through the month already! Today has been hectic already; I’ve got several deadlines on jobs that are due today, so I’m working with my head down to get all those done first.

1457 – here’s a little insight into how my day has gone so far. I had 8 jobs to do this morning; I now have 3 remaining. One of those is tiny (one short blog) and one of the others shouldn’t take long and is due today. So I’ll be tackling that next. How do you plan your day when you have different deadlines to meet? I find it easier to focus on deadline stuff first because then I have wiggle room for the rest of the day if I need it.

Whew! It’s now nearly 9pm and I am just about to finish. I managed to write another article for our website (one of them anyway – we have two on the go to create and go live at the moment) and I have just done one final push to finish my last bit of work for the day. It was either a case of finishing late tonight and getting the whole weekend off, or finishing early and then having to do some tomorrow. I wasn’t sure I’d get everything done tonight but I’m glad I got my head down and carried on. Kinda stopped for dinner but it was only a quick break. Now I can relax with my Kindle and read for a while…

We have the gas pipe to be fixed in the morning (fingers crossed) so I may just write a blog tomorrow to let you know how it goes. Otherwise I shall enjoy my weekend off and arrive back at my desk bright and early on Monday morning, ready to watch the scaffolding going up. It’s all go! I’m intrigued to see how I can work when the new roof goes on, with men climbing up ladders right outside my office window… Not sure the cat will be too impressed. He hates loud noises, banging and men he doesn’t like. Sounds like a recipe for disaster doesn’t it?

Have a fantastic weekend!

Let’s get one thing straight before I write anything else. I’m not against NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in any way, shape or form. In fact it’s quite the opposite – I think it’s a great idea. But although I did give it some consideration this year, I’ve decided to forego the challenge once again. There are some good reasons for this too.

Firstly I have written a novel which I hope to get out, dust off and do something with at some point in the not too distant future. I’m considering the idea of making the first two or three chapters available for free and then charging on the Kindle platform to read the rest. It’s worked for others and I’m curious as to how it might work for me.

But more than that I want to continue with a number of goals and tasks I already have in the works instead of getting sidetracked with NaNoWriMo 2011. For instance there is still a lot of work to do on my blog now that it has been overhauled. Regular posting will be one of my goals. I also have an affiliate site that has been newly created that I will be writing content for. So in a sense I will be taking on a similar goal to get writing: I’ll just have a different target each day.

How about you? Will you be focusing on NaNoWriMo this year? Or will you be focusing on some other writing goal? If you are taking part in NaNoWriMo 2011, good luck and I hope you have a novel completed by the end of it!

… and it looks like I finished in the top 100 writers who took part in the competition.  Wow.

What this apparently means is that not only do I get the coveted Ezine Articles mug (at last!), I also get another mouse mat to go along with the one I already have.  But I will also be receiving a blanket and a hat too, both of which of course have the Ezine Articles logo on them.  No doubt my nice white cat will take up ownership of the nice red blanket.  Hmm.

Anyway now the challenge is over I have had time to sit back and think about what I actually achieved – and more to the point whether it was worth it or not.  Prizes aside I am still glad I did it and since I have had a lot of traffic from those 100+ articles it certainly was worth it.

I don’t think I will be taking part in the third challenge that starts on New Year’s Day though.  Instead I am going to try and set myself the challenge to get started on Hubpages again.  Will I try for 100 Hubs in 100 Days?  Possibly – we’ll see.  It would certainly be a nice challenge wouldn’t it?  In case you didn’t know, the Hubpages challenge is one of my five writing based resolutions for 2010.  Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions sorted out yet?

The reward for achieving my Hubpages goal will hopefully be some Adsense revenue instead of a new blanket for the cat (and the traffic of course).  But whatever happens in that regard, I shall keep you posted on this and my other resolutions for the New Year.

I made it through the tape... after 100 articles and around 91 days, the Ezine Articles Challenge is complete - for me at least

Wow.  I did wonder back in early August whether I would actually ever get to write that.  But today I did a quick count up and I now have 101 submitted articles since the challenge began.  At present 98 of those are accepted, with 3 going through the motions of being processed.  But hopefully they will make it and I’ll hit the target.  I’ve only had two bounce backs since I started submitting – one for accidentally copying and pasting a note to myself which shouldn’t have made it onto the finished article, and the other one for breaking an Ezines regulation.

I may still submit a few more just to be sure I’ve done it, but it’s still a relief to hit the target with some 9 days still to go.  I fell behind when we went on holiday but I had a terrific day last week where I managed to write about 14 articles in a single day.  That really broke the back of the task to be honest, and I’m pleased to have been able to complete it.

But was it worth it?  Did I achieve anything notable?

Well, I have to say it WAS worth it.  A lot of the articles are directed back to this blog and I did it to gain valuable backlinks and also attract traffic and attention, and that seems to be working.  I’ve also have potential clients coming to me for information on writing services, so that’s another benefit.

In addition to that some of the articles have also made their way onto this blog.  My aim is to share much of the information I have created with you guys too, so there is plenty more to come.

But perhaps the most telling part of those 100 or so articles I have written is that this is just the beginning.  Yes I may well win an Ezines mug to try and find room for on our mug tree.  Yes I may well get a certificate to stick on the office wall with Blu-tack.  But most of all I have proved that I can meet my own self-set deadlines and not just those agreed with clients.  That is great news as I go forward and develop this blog and my own eBooks that I have plans for in the future.

But I can also use that content elsewhere.  I could submit it to more article directories.  I could rewrite it and use it as a springboard to more articles, thoughts and ideas in the future.

I thought when I finished that would be it (always assuming I made it in the first place).  But in actual fact I feel as if the work has only just begun.  You can go back and see how I did throughout the challenge by going to the writing challenge section of this blog.  I’ll let you know when it becomes officially official that I passed!  And of course, I’ll tell you when that coveted mug turns up.

And yes, I may well tell you when I finally drop it as well .

Yes I am ahead of myself at the moment.  I’m delighted that I have made a good start, but I am now hoping to up my article output to two per day.  Doesn’t sound like a lot, but busy days can make it tricky at times.

There's a mountain to climb...

I have employed a new strategy to make sure I do at least one per day though.  I now sit down and write that first article first thing in the morning.  It doesn’t take long, and if I get more time later on I can do another one.

I’m still waiting for the article I submitted last week to go through so I can – hopefully – carry on submitting.  Apparently it is possible to be promoted straight to Platinum Status, which would obviously make things a lot easier as I can then submit as many articles as I wish whenever I want to.

Currently I am on stage three of five with my article review – with five being the published stage.  I made it from zero to three overnight, so here’s hoping the final bit gets completed soon!

Meantime I am continuing to write, write, write – and hopefully you are too?  Let me know if you have taken up this challenge; you can read more on the main page of this section, at A Writing Challenge.

I’m out and about tomorrow which may mean no blog post, but I’ll be back to report on my progress very soon.

And how am I doing?  Well, I have made a good start.  I’ve written two articles that are ready to submit to Ezine Articles.  I say ready to submit because I have one article waiting to be accepted by them, and I have reached my limit of submissions at the moment.

Will I fill my notebook with 100+ article ideas to write by Nov 9th?

Once that has been accepted I need to get my account up to the next level, and then I will be able to start submitting articles again.  But until then I am carrying on and making sure I keep up with the challenge – so I might have a nice stack of articles to go on in one go very soon!

My notepad is filling up with ideas as well, and I have found that those ideas come to me in fits and starts.  Needless to say the notepad is never far away.  I want to be able to start writing as soon as I sit down to begin an article – I don’t want to sit around waiting for inspiration to show up first.

If you haven’t signed up for this challenge yet there is still plenty of time.  It got underway today, but you are welcome to join at any time and attempt to hit the target by Monday 9th November.  Apparently someone hit 500 articles the last time they tried and they are going for 1000 this time, so anything is possible!  Wow, what a target though, hey?  Think I’ll stick with the round 1oo for this time around!

Well it’s been an interesting day today.  Apart from my regular work I now have a new notepad on my desk in readiness for this new article writing challenge that is starting on Saturday.

If you haven’t heard of it yet, I suggest you take a quick look at my page called A Writing Challenge.  It’s not about selling articles, it’s about writing 100 Articles in 100 Days to promote whatever you might have that needs promoting.  I shall be promoting this blog, but you could write articles that will help you generate traffic to your own blog, your website, or any other page you have online that you would like to get traffic to.

And of course, you will achieve at least one hundred backlinks to your chosen site as well.  If anyone likes your articles and downloads them from Ezine Articles to use elsewhere, well that is more good news for you too.  Ezine Articles is a website that publishes your articles free in return for giving you a link to your own website.

So I have been gathering ideas so that when the challenge begins on Saturday, I won’t be wasting time looking around for things to write about.  The ideas are all writing related of course, so I am gradually building up a nice selection to get me started.  I think I have a dozen or so to begin with, so that should see me through a few days!

If you are ready for the challenge, you can follow me by going to my profile page on the challenge website.  You can also sign up for the challenge yourself by going to http://100articles100days.ning.com.

I did have my reservations about publicly announcing that I was going to do this – purely because if I was going to fail I didn’t want to do so publicly!  But I decided that by signing up and announcing the fact, I was automatically giving myself a better chance of succeeding.

My list of ideas should help me get a good start anyway, but of course I have to think about days off and building them into the equation too.  But it’s about time I wrote for myself as well as for clients, as I think getting that balance right is all important.

So finger’s crossed I do it.  Will you?

Yes it’s been a crazy week.  I’ve had to take on a bit less writing work than I would normally because of all the stock that is waiting to go into our eBay shop.  But the bulk is now on and I am hoping that I can now get back into writing a bit more and simply sell, sell, sell as far as eBay is concerned!

It’s definitely picking up, but November is traditionally when it really gets going.  We’ll see how far this credit crunch affects us this year – although so far we haven’t noticed any difference at all.

We're selling and panicking - but in a good way!

I’m on the home straight with an eBook I’m writing for a client that is due by the end of the month, so that’s good news – and possibly the fastest I’ve written one as well. I think writing is all about finding new ways of working that get more done in less time, and I’ve certainly found that getting a bit more time to yourself instead of working ALL the time pays off in the end.

Why?  Simply because you get time to recharge your batteries.  I didn’t set my alarm for the first time since being on holiday this morning, and I’m definitely writing faster and better because I had that lie in.

Have you tried it lately?  Sometimes less really is more!  Let me know how you write at your best, and when.