A Dream Come True?

For the past two and a half years, I have been dreaming of working from home and writing full time. Who wouldn't love to have the flexibility of working from home?

I never dreamed it could happen so soon, though. I am going to be moving out of state and leaving my traditional job within two weeks, so I figured, why not. If nothing else, I will always have some amount of money coming in while I look for a new job.

It's a pretty exciting -- and nerve-racking -- time for me right now. On the one hand, I'm pretty confident I can make enough money to get by. On the other hand, I'm a little nervous I won't be able to do it and will have to rely on Dan to pay the bills for a little while.

If it does work out, though, I could end up freelance writing full time for the rest of my life. Am I ready for that?

Do you have any tips that will help me make it work out?

Expansion

I figure it's about time I updated my blog. A lot has happened since I last posted: I reached Clout 10 at AC, was accepted into the new Yahoo! Featured Contributor program... And now I've decided to expand my business with some niche blogs.

I have some vision as to what I want to accomplish, but it will all take time. So far, I have started a decorating blog - "Explore Your Decor" - and have plans to create one for DIY home improvements, dogs, cats...and possibly green living, alternative medicine, entertainment, and so on.

I'm starting on them one at a time and I will slowly add content to each blog. I'm trying to achieve the best layout to incorporate ads, as well as choose a unique title and design scheme for each one. My eventual goal is to be able to make a nice income from my blogs, in case I end up writing full time. Which could happen in the very near future.

You never know....

I'm Finally a Nine!!

I have - finally - reached my goal of Clout 9 at AssociatedContent.com. It was a long stretch, and I'm guessing the stretch to Clout 10 will be even longer.

It took at least six months and over 200 articles (to make a total of 396 articles published) for me to reach this goal. It was a lot more work than I ever expected. My next goal is to have 400 total articles published, which won't be hard at all, since I already have three more waiting for review. After that, it's onward to Clout 10!

But I don't expect to reach that milestone until 2011....

the Family Pet blog

I have just started a new blog, 'the Family Pet'. It will feature various pets, predominantly cats and dogs, and I will blog about life with a kitty and puppy. So far, there isn't much to read, but check it out anyway! You can vote about which you prefer: cats or dogs. Please check it out and feel free to leave any suggestions or comments. You will find it here.

May Update

May has been the most stressful month and, of all the weeks, this is the busiest. And it's only half over!

A lot happens in three months (which is the last time I posted) - I've been busy moving into a new apartment and getting everything settled at the old one. I've been busy with my new puppy and kitty. Softball is just beginning, as well, so that takes up every Wednesday evening.

As far as writing goes, it's been going pretty well. Could be better though...the money has suddenly stopped flowing in and has slowed to a trickle. It probably doesn't help that I've been too busy to write much.

My AC goal was to make the 400 article mark by the end of the month. I have a little over ten articles to go in about 5 days, and I don't know when I'm going to have time to write them with everything that's going on this week. I'm supposed to be going camping for Memorial weekend, but I don't know if that's going to happen.

My other AC goal was to reach Clout 9 by the end of the month. I'm sort of on track - if I've calculated right, though, I'll make it about two or three days into June.

Lots of exciting things are coming up, too. I'll be going to Chicago in August, so I'm saving up to replace the money I'll be losing at work. It's really not that hard to save money if you have a goal, I've found out. So far, I've been able to pay for my puppy with my writing money and a whole lot of bills.

I'm hoping to save enough money for a new laptop, too, but that might still be far into the future....

100,000 Page Views at AC

...almost there! I'm at 98,900 pv's right now. Can I get 1,100 more today? (Here is a link to my AC page.) Will update later.

Featured Home Improvement Contributor

I just received an email from Associated Content telling me that I had been accepted as one of the Featured Home Improvement Contributors. Sweet! That means I'll be offered targeted assignments in that category and stuff like that. And if you check out my profile, you'll see the Featured Home Improvement Contributor label under my name. Anyway, so I'm looking forward to discovering everything the title has to offer ;) Should be exciting!