Blog Day Planner

Image by ginatrapani via Flickr

It's goal setting time once again this year and I'm reviewing my income, my work habits, and all my freelance writing techniques. You would do well to re-evaluate your freelance writing business at least twice a year. This planner is a format that allows me to write, to plan, to evaluate and focus on any improvements that I could make in my personal business practices.

I came to the realization that time planning is a crucial element in any project, whether personal, civic or business. Taking that into consideration, my goal is to assess how I use my freelance writing time to discover how much I earn per hour. I want to improve my work habits to maximize my earnings and to increase my writing proficiency.

One thing that must remain intact is writing quality. Never sacrifice quality for any amount of money. Stay true to your style but be willing to try other styles. This practice will broaden your horizons and help you to discover whether your talent lies in other areas. Remember though, if you are a freelance writer, you are operating a business in which your time as a freelancer is valuable. After all, you want to get the most out of life so write in such a way that you will have more time in other areas of your life.

Maximize your earnings.
Free up your valuable time to allow for personal time.
Become more time efficient.

These are the goals for this fall. I hope to practice writing so that I will earn a minimum of $70.00 per day, every working day. For me, that will be six days per week to equal $420.00 weekly. Maybe I'll exceed that goal. For now, that involves writing 7 ten dollar articles daily, if that is all that I find in my task boards. Some days I'm very blessed to have $20 to $25 or $35 assignments. On those days, I'll exceed my goal because I am planning to write four hours every day for six days. That's a minimum. Some other time will be spent working on a novel, so I'm cutting out about 20 hours of blogging a week so I can focus on writing a chapter per week of my novel.

I'll post updates on my progress. Let me know how your goal setting lines up with your actual turn out this fall.

The Midnight Writer

Image by cobalt123 via Flickr

I'm sitting by a lake in California just totally enjoying the peace and quiet that came just after midnight. Maybe that tells you why I like sitting up late at night to write. That midnight hour just seems to strike some magical chord that resonates throughout the night. It really inspires me to be creative.

An hour ago, voices were buzzing everywhere amidst the sound of opening and closing car and truck doors. The water was lapping harder against the shore because there were dozens of boats out on the water. The birds were calling out to muffle the sound of the engines. Then, almost all at once, the people drove away, the boats got quiet, the birds hushed and the water lapped softer against the shore. A lone dog gave a soft bark five minutes ago as if tempting the silence to be broken.

Nature. Solitude. After midnight. A special time.

Tonight, I have plenty of time to ponder what to do on my blogs in the coming week. I'll be writing a post here next on traveling in an RV this summer. Since I'm an avid traveler and freelance writer who lives on the road, this is the perfect opportunity to work it into my blogging plans. Naturally, we should share some RV news and experiences. My van is a camper van so it qualifies as an historic RV. (a little humor there)

The Midnight Writer

Image via Wikipedia

Today I wanted to take just a minute to share my joy at being in a spectacular place of beauty on earth. I'll be working with the view of Mount Shasta looming close by. We drove through last night and it is like coming home because we used to live here for the better part of three years. Cephas and I camped all over this region and walked through much of the forest here while climbing her wooded hillsides. We endured spring, summer, fall and winter here with a tent pitched in a foot of snow. It's great to return to a place of such wonder.

Of course, Cephas overdid it again yesterday. We scoured the hillsides of Weed looking for an old campsite. A housing project is taking the foothills of Mount Shasta there. Developers cut down a lot of trees so we could not establish our original path. We haven't given up and could go back again. Our markers were tree lines, shrubs, wood piles and the contrast of tall trees next to short ones on the moonlit horizon. It's been four years since we camped there which seems like a lifetime. The world here is much different now than then.

I have some photos that we took yesterday that I need to upload but until I do that, I wanted to share a photo of Mount Shasta for all to enjoy.

There are some tasks that I need to finish today and lots of new ones to begin. Work is coming in a steady stream now and I am reminding myself to be disciplined enough to sit for several hours to write. The sunshine and brisk spring air is calling to me to explore the mountain forests again. I'll enjoy after my work is done. Resist! Resist the temptation to put leisure before my freelance writing assignments. That is an important part of working at home...knowing when to work and when to play. Even though your time is your own there are certain principles and guidelines you must abide if you are going to be a successful freelance writer.

My tasks for today can be categorized by levels of importance and due dates. That is a good way to prioritize. Here is a basic routine that I have established for myself and it might work for you. Of course, it varies.

• I check my emails first and my invoices that might need submitted from various companies.
• Respond to urgent emails such as job providers who need assurance that I'm working on their article or pending work to accept or follow up on mistakes made on blog posts. Many times clients will give you a chance to correct your mistakes, if they are minor.
• Edit blog posts with mistakes.
• Review my latest blog posts in search of errors such as typos, photos that need resizing, or slight content editing. Sometimes I find one or two posts that just don't measure up to my quality standards. I rewrite those posts.
• Submit completed work and email the clients to let them know that posts or articles are ready.
• Upload all my blog posts from Live Writer, which is a service that I use when I'm offline.
• Check all job boards for new assignments and send emails to current clients to find out if they have new tasks for me.
• Outline the new articles according to due dates and start working my way down the list.
• Upload all recent photos onto computer, sort and look for relevant photos to put in my most recent blog posts.
• When paid assignments are finished, I look at my blogs and attempt to write five or more posts per day. (I have lots of blogs!)
• Social Networking. Follow up on all my social networks and make a few updates.
• Entrecard. Drop cards on all recent advertisers, find new blogs to drop on and buy some advertising.

The above outline can vary from four hours to twelve depending on the number of assignments that I have pending . On days like this, I work in two shifts starting in the morning for about five hours. I break for about the five or six hours for recreation, dining, personal relaxation, chores, family time. At night, I'm at the keyboard again sometimes for six to eight hours if I have a lot of work to finish.

I'm anxious to get started on my day. I'd love to hear how you manage your freelance writing life. Leave a comment to share with us.

The Midnight Writer