Working Outside

I’ve been spending a lot of time outdoors. For some strange reason, my illness seems to have gone into remission and I don’t get sick from the sun anymore. As a matter of fact, I don’t even get the rash on my face anymore. I’m not complaining though. I’m thrilled. I love being out in my yard planting flowers or playing or just writing. The writing part is doing a lot better now that it’s done out among the trees¹.

I get a couple of cheap pens, some loose-leaf paper and go to work. As long as I’m not interrupted I can really churn some stuff out. Right now I have a couple of articles in rough draft and those are destined for BellaOnline, but I’m hoping to start putting some gardening articles up on my other blog soon.

I love to garden. I’m not an expert by any means, but I don’t care. I love to plant stuff and watch it grow. So far I’ve only killed one thing, I think, and it was almost dead anyway. Last summer my poor flower beds were horrible. I couldn’t get out to them because I was so sick. Not so this summer. Except for the vegetable garden. Sadly, since it’s been raining so much, the weeds are gaining ground at there. In my defense, that’s supposed to be Grump’s spot in the yard. We say that, but we all know that it’s Lizzie’s job to keep it up. At any rate, my mother brought me a couple of things that she can’t plant at her house and I’ve determined that it’s time to build another bed. I’m hoping I’ll have enough beds soon that I won’t have to mow such a huge patch a grass anymore.

So, back to what I was saying about writing. We have a couple of tables in our yard and I plop myself at one and go to work. Mags will usually find something better to than bug me, but occasionally she’ll sit right with me (trying to get me to identify various insecti). Grump will randomly come over to attempt to start up a conversation about something that makes no sense to me (when he thinks about things he forgets that the conversation was in his head and I wasn’t privy to the first part of it). I don’t mind the small interruptions, though. It’s nice to be able to write like that. This is why I want to move south. So I can have more seasons of warmth and always feel this good.

1. My yard has a lot of trees. [↩]

Looking for Inspiration

I was searching for t.v. spoilers (for my new gig) when I came across these kinds of spoilers. It’s notable because I’m going to be 35 next month and I’d never known what those things were called. I also didn’t realize they were still popular.

At any rate, I found plenty of spoilers for soap operas. Those are easy to come by. But for television dramas? Not so much. Little bits of “what’s happening next week” is about all I can come by. I’m running out of interesting ideas to write about regarding dramatic television. How many character bios does the internet need anyway? Finding something to write about on one topic is very hard for me. But it’s also a great way to get my brain working. Like writing prompts, I’m forced to be a lot more creative in finding topics- niche topics if you will¹. There’s more interest in reality tv (not from me) than anything else. So it’s easy to find ideas in that arena. I really don’t care what happened on “Idol” last night, but that doesn’t matter to the rest of the Internet. Apparently, I’m supposed to be addicted too.

I have to say, though, that my site there gets thousands more hits than this site or even Simply Stating. I don’t get comments, of course, but there is plenty of interest in what I’m writing. The problem is that I don’t get feedback besides the stats, so I don’t know which direction to go in with this stuff. I’m getting lost.

Is there anything particular (regarding dramatic television) that you’d be interested in reading?

1. I wish you wouldn’t [↩]

Getting Better At Me

As I mentioned previously, I’m giving myself a make over. This not only includes my physical self, but my business self too. For my physical self I’ve changed my hair, started exercising more vigorously, am considering supplements like Orovo and getting a mental balance. I think that kind of health is important for someone looking to succeed at working from home.

For my business self, I’m going to stop concentrating on the little stuff and concentrate more on improving my writing. My schooling is helping me with coding and things of the techie nature, so I may add some tutorials here and there- for those that are interested. I’m looking into opportunities for paid blogging jobs again. I haven’t been very successful at actually getting paid for those kinds of job (one didn’t even get past the initial planning stage and for the other I wrote three articles that garnered me zero compensation). I’m going to continue doing the job I’m doing now, but am going to expand on that for this blog and my other one. I thought momentarily of starting yet another blog- to make some more money - but I really don’t think having 10 or 12 blogs of my own is going to do me any good. I cannot write a post with a length of just 60-100 words, and do that for a half dozen or so blogs. I feel that would be selling myself, and my “boss”, short with that sort of thing. And making myself crazy.

If I were to have a blog “network” I would want others to join me in making it work. As it is, there are already enough of those too, I think. And they’re way better than what I could produce.

Nope I’m going to be working on making myself the quality product and marketing me. Keep your fingers crossed.

Other Things Besides That

The last few months I’ve been getting deeper and deeper into SEO and blogging for dollars (to put it lightly). I’ve joined some forums, read a lot of posts and used a couple of different services¹. I don’t think I did as well as some, but not as poorly as others. I like what I’m doing currently, but it’s not making me rich (though I have paid a couple of bills this month- thanks). But the drama² sucked me in.

After Google penalized bloggers for doing paid posts, there was much teeth gnashing and hair pulling. Then bloggers started turning on each other. One company assures it’s contractors³ that they are going to eliminate Google’s algorithm from their segmentation. This has many of the more vocal supporters of said company dancing happily while waiting…and waiting…and waiting. Anyway, it’s a mess and I don’t even know why I care. That’s the problem.

So, I went back into my bag of tricks and found a couple of more things that work for me. One of them is Brijit⁴. For Brijit, you pick from the available articles and write a 60-100 word synopsis (abstract) of the article. They have 3 slots, but only pick one article. So, it’s kind of a competition, the best one written gets published and you get $5. After publication, the Brijit staff then cleans (edits) it up to make it more palatable for the site⁵ . The more abstracts you write, the more likely you are to get published. And if you look at the articles/videos that are due the soonest, find one with 3 open slots, you’re more likely to get chosen. It’s not guaranteed, but if you’re a good writer then you can make some money at it.

As an example, here is one I did today (it was published today):

I Don’t Believe in Atheists -

Wilder talks to Chris Hedges about his new book, I Don’t Believe in Atheists, and his ongoing debates with New Atheists such as Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Hedges candidly explains why he believes that New Atheists are just as bad as Christian fundamentalists; both groups are full of hate and bigotry. As for the blow-by-blow, he calls Harris “intellectually shallow” and Hitchens “amoral.” Hedges’ insight is in-depth and revealing, and Wilder does an excellent job of drawing out his ire.
in Salon by Charly Wilder, 13 March 2008
This abstract was edited by Brijit. Read more here…

I use this as an example of other supplemental income. I recently saw a post by a young lady lamenting her loss of PageRank and how this could potentially threaten her health. She mentioned different companies that pay for PageRank and that Google has effectively taken away her livelihood. I thought that was way off the mark, simply because Google never agreed to pay her anything and it was the companies that contracted her that hurt her by depending on PR. Someone mentioned that fact in the comments⁶ and I almost asked if she did anything like Brijit.

If you’re burnt out on the SEO thing and not making enough off of your blog (or are writing for literally a dozen blogs) then you might consider something a little different. Even as a supplemental. Brijit is just one example. For other resources, the WAHM.com message boards are full of information. It’s more than just “not putting all your eggs in one basket” at this point.

1. I don’t consider myself an “employee” per se, nor do I believe I am considered an employee, but that’s an argument for another time [↩]
2. I cannot believe the drama [↩]
3. They too are not employees [↩]
4. This is not a referral code. [↩]
5. If Needed. [↩]
6. I thought it was cold-hearted considering the nature of the post- but it was factual [↩]

New Depp Movie in Theaters Now

When I was young I fell in love with Johnny Depp. At the time he was playing an undercover cop in “21 Jumpstreet”. It was the role that basically launched his career. Yes, he was in films before that, but that was what put him on the map. I loved that show.

Later, Depp appeared in “Sleepy Hollow”, in which he played Icabod Crane. Icabod was a young investigator trying to get to the bottom of the legend of the Headless Horseman. He insisted that the horseman had to be flesh and blood. Unfortunately, Icabod finally sees the ghost in action and is jarred into believing in the supernatural. I really liked this film as well as “Charlie and The Chocolate Factory”.

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” was, of course, more light hearted. Depp played Willy Wonka, who took the Golden Ticket winners on a whirl wind adventure inside of his chocolate factory. The movie was full of interesting twist and turns with Wonka trying to convince Charlie to come live with him. There was a really good moral to that story, but the addition of video games turned me off slightly. I liked the older version and would have preferred a remake that was closer to the original.

I’m not sure which I liked better because “Sleepy Hollow” was dark and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” was a remake of one of my favorite childhood movies. Depending on my mood, either could be considered my favorite Depp movie.

Now, Depp is starring in “Sweeney Todd” who is a barber looking for revenge in old London. He lives above Mrs. Lovett’s Meat Pie Shop where he plots revenge against everyone that has ever wronged him. He becomes a serial killer, his weapon of choice a straight razor, with Mrs. Lovett as his sometimes accomplice. This movie is incredibly interesting and Todd is a perfect fit for Depp.

For more information on the “Sweeney Todd- The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” visit the official Sweeney Todd movie site or visit Sweeney Todd on MySpace. It’s in theaters now.

Finally Another Official Word

Google’s made their stance on paid links even more official.

Q: Is buying or selling links that pass PageRank a violation of Google’s guidelines? Why?

A: Yes, it is, for the reasons we mentioned above. I also recently did a post on my personal blog that walks through an example of why search engines wouldn’t want to count such links. On a serious medical subject (brain tumors), we highlighted people being paid to write about a brain tumor treatment when they hadn’t been aware of the treatment before, and we saw several cases where people didn’t do basic research (or even spellchecking!) before writing paid posts.

I’ve been drawn to the PPP forums like a gawker at a train wreck and some of the bloggers there have been adamant that PPP didn’t know about Google’s guidelines and didn’t try to game the system.

In the last PR update, my PR went up from 4 to 5. I had been doing PPP for a YEAR at that point.

So tell me, how exactly did PPP know my PR was going to drop to 0? Because from all indications from Google, the value of my blog went UP doing PPP.

Ted does not get calls from the Google hotline. Social Spark and RR has been in the works for MONTHS. There’s no conspiracy here.

Except that’s not true is it? Matt Cutts links to his own posts about PR and paid posts going all the way back to 2005. Everyone who knew anything about SEO knew that something was going to happen sometime. In my short time involved in this sector of the blogosphere I’ve learned quite a lot about this issue and I know that many people were concerned about losing PR.

But the funniest part is that some bloggers are trying to convince others that the PPP model wasn’t about selling PageRank, even though those with the largest PRs got the biggest checks for their reviews. The more SEO savvy bloggers knew what was going on and did whatever they could to get their PR up. Some even refused to link to blogs that were less than a PR 3 and asked that those same pissant blogs not link to them. With the specific anchor text and the PR favoritism, it was of course about PR. Otherwise PPP bloggers would have been allowed to append “nofollow” to the links if they felt the need.

Some bloggers in the forums are quick to jump on other bloggers who bring up discrepancies with past policies and what’s been done to their blogs. Some have been laughed at for adding “nofollow” to their paid links and ridiculed for “cheating the advertisers”. Except it’s not cheating anyone after 30 days, is it? It’s getting a little vicious in those forums, so watch out.

Another bothersome thing was that one new blogger mentioned that she didn’t have any idea she would get penalized for doing PPP. Another blogger chastised her, saying that she had to have known. Everyone knew (seeing a pattern of contradiction here?). This new blogger was like me when I stepped into this sector of the blogging world. I had no idea that paid blogging was a punishable offense and didn’t find out until a lot more reading. If I hadn’t been so deeply entrenched in learning SEO (at the time) I wouldn’t have learned that PR mattered, why PR mattered, or how much PR is worth monetarily. This blogger was me just two months ago. There is nothing in the hype of PPP that tells the naive they could potentially lose valuable readers, get knocked down in PR or earn a bad reputation because of simple posting.

I’m not so much disturbed by Google. Two things happened that made me decide to quit PPP. One was when another blogger, whom I admire, informed me that he would have linked to my post, except I was tainted goods (basically). The final straw was when I saw two bloggers lose their minds (or their scruples depending on your mindset*) over the Google Smackdown. I no longer wanted to be a part of that. No thanks. I would like to earn a reputation of integrity and honesty and maybe gain some respect from certain members of this side of the blogging sphere. I don’t want to be called a “whore” or be thought of as dirty or tainted. Google, unfortunately, is an after thought for me, because I didn’t care about PageRank before and I’m not going to start now. Well, maybe a little. But that’ll come after my final payout.

I’m glad that I found out about this when I did. Had I invested months and months in this program and then had it come crashing down on my head I would have been lost. I appreciate the extra money I made, but I guess it was too good to last. I feel bad for those bloggers that were naive and still believe everything that’s being fed to them. I worked at Wal-Mart once, years ago, and saw the same type of thing happening between the management and employees. Something bad would happen and all kinds of nice words of encouragement would be lavished on the employees while Wal-Mart gave them the shaft yet again. Like when they changed the way raises were given. Man, oh man. When I saw people falling for that jive I got my tail out of there. I’ve had it in for Wal-Mart every since. I want to like the folks at PPP, but there’s just something really shady happening with regards to the more naive bloggers. It’s sad.

Now, I’m back to writing legitimately. I’ve got Brijit and AC to keep me warm from now on. And whatever comes my way via regular freelance work. I don’t have to feel dirty for doing it. Best of all, no one risks their own reputation by linking to me or commenting on my blog. Considering everything that I’ve been going through lately, my reputation is all I’ve got in this world and it does mean that much to me. Ya know?