It seems to be working...

So I'm following the advice to the letter. 

I've enrolled in the accelerated copy writing course, and I can't get through this stuff fast enough. I want to skim through it the first time, then go through it in more in depth a second time. I'm finding it so interesting! It's like when someone tells you "hey...I've got a secret to tell you", but they make you wait a week to actually tell it. I've even emailed the modules to my phone, so that I can read it anywhere. 

That's how this course feels. They cover a ton of information even in the first two sections, and it seems like 'basic' stuff, but I'm eager to get through it as fast as I can, so that I can get to the 'juicy stuff'. 

There's one particular piece of advice on contacting potential clients that one of the copywriters gives in a podcast, and kind of as a 'lark', I tried it.

Hoooooly crap! It worked! 

I can't tell you what it is at the moment, but I will tell you that within hours of my doing what he advised, a 'potential' client contacted me to tell me that he "may have some work on a few projects" for me! 

Now...whether or not that actually turns into something is yet to be seen, but the fact that someone actually contacted me like that so quickly after my starting the course is amazing. 

Stay tuned...

A.

Do what I love? Okay...

Okay...I've thought about what I actually like, and they're things that I previously thought weren't things that I could actually create a living from, but I've figured out just how to do this;

I love cheese. Particularly of the gourmet variety. My best friend is a flight attendant, and a couple of months ago, she was in the UK, and she brought back this incredible balsamic onion cheese. I know...sounds nutty, but my GOD it was delicious! So I decided to do something with that, and see how it works out. 

Today is October 1st, and here's what I've done so far; 

I've set up four blogs, each one is on the subject of something that I really do love, regardless of how random it seems (like the cheese). 

Then I scurried over to commission junction, and opened an account. I opened one account, and listed each blog/site inside it. I didn't want to open four separate accounts. That would get way too confusing for me in a hurry. 

My next step is to write, or find articles pertaining to the topic of each blog, and fill each blog with pertinent, entertaining information. I actually enjoy reading these articles, so it's not like I'll be filling the blogs with useless shit (I hate that). 

Once the blogs have a ton of great information, I'll be adding affiliate links wherever possible. 

Oh yeah...social media. I'll be starting Twitter and Instagram accounts for each blog as well. I really don't have much interest in Facebook, as they require that I 'attach' each page to my personal account. In addition, I'm on a FB Break (have been for about a month now), and I'm not getting back on it just to accommodate this.

Stay tuned...

A.

Information Overload...

It's only 11:30 in the morning, and my eyes are already crossing from staring at this screen for the last four hours. At this rate, when I actually start making money with what I'm doing (primarily on the computer), I'll be done by noon, because I won't be able to keep looking at the screen!

The Writer's Association "Gig"...

...and I use the term "gig" very loosely.

I told you a few posts ago, that I signed up for that writer's association thingy, because I was reading the testimonials of some of their members, and honestly, I got sucked in. (And it's actually called "American Writers and Artists Inc.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not unhappy with it so far, but it's only been a day. There's a lot of information once you get inside, but that's about it...unless you let them get deeper into your wallet. Once you go deeper, there are any number of courses that you can take, but you're paying that $200 as an 'entry fee'. 


Stay tuned...

A.

My Biggest Obstacle...

...in this whole mess, was figuring out what I WANT to do. 

They say that if you know what you 'enjoy', what you truly have a passion for, that you should do it, and you'll likely be able to do it for a living. What do I like doing enough, to want to do it 8 hours a day?

Well...my problem was that I couldn't think about anything that I was truly "passionate" about...not to the point where I could see myself doing it for a living anyway. 

Truth be told, I'm actually enjoying this; writing in this thing really does give me joy. I look forward to starting a new post, I'm thinking maybe because it serves as some sort of 'outlet'. 

What I'm passionate about, is making money. I've kind of grown accustomed to eating and that takes some dough. I don't care if I'm mopping floors, if someone wants to pay me ridiculous money to do it, I'm in. Yes...it would be nice to love what I do, but until I find what that 'thing' is, I'll just say that 'making money' is what I love to do. 

Stay tuned...

A.

I Need to Visualize

...to keep me on track.

I was on Instagram a few days ago, and I came across a picture of the interior of a condo in NY. The thing absolutely took my breath away. I kept it, and it's now the background image on my phone. That's a symbol of what I'm working for; every fucking thing that I had before my ass hit the dirt. I want it all back. I want to make enough money to provide myself with the lifestyle that I had five years ago. (No...I don't want the life that I had a year ago. A year ago I had my own place, but like I said before, I lost everything gradually. A year ago I was almost at my 'bottom'; living in a basement suite, no car, in a neighborhood that I totally didn't want to be in.)

I want my condo, I want to be able to walk into a store and buy furniture...with CASH (I hate credit). I want to be able to pay my rent, hydro, and cable all in the same month, with plenty to 'play' with when that's all said and done, also known as "the end of the month".

I want to be able to go for drinks with friends, because I can AFFORD to. I want to walk into a store, and be able to buy the things that I like, without worrying that my little purchase will cause something else to bounce out of my account.

The picture that accompanies this post, is the one that keeps me going. That's going to be mine one day soon.

Stay tuned...

A.

The Web is a Con...

Yeah man...and that's the truth of it. 

A HUGE amount of the information that you'll find online is a massive CON. There are so fucking many people who're out to simply get your hard earned cash for this or that program, or by telling you that something works, when it really doesn't, or that they are someone that they're totally NOT, or by 'giving' you a fuck-ton of email that you don't want in the first place, that it'll make your fucking head spin! I'm dumbfounded!

I'm trying to sort through what's actually 'worthy' of doing, and what's not. And if I can do it for free...I'm all in. 

I'm also 'flying by the seat of my pants' on some things. I think that's how I'm going to have to do this for the most part. 

I can't believe how hard it is to get shit done without money!  

You'll notice that I'm posting to this thing more than once a day. That's because I'm working at break-neck speed, and I want to start seeing some kind of results sooner rather than later. I want to make sure that I don't fall behind on this blog, because once I do, I probably won't document it...too much work, and my memory sucks. As I told you before, I'm not a patient person, and when it comes to making money, once I'm motivated by something that I actually want to do, it's ON (like Donkey Kong...LOL!)

For the record, I was going to add a newsletter signup to this blog, so that I could send you 'updates' once a week, but I've decided against it. It's just more work for me, and I decided instead to just add the blogger thingy that lets you sign up for 'updates' if you want the posts to come to your inbox as I post (HAH!! MORE shit mail! ;) 

So...if you wanna "follow" this stuff by having it dumped into your inbox, all you have to do is add your email address to the "follow by email" box in the upper right corner of the page. 

Stay tuned...

A.

I've done a couple of things...

So...in doing my "research" to start the 'writing trip', I'm finding that there's a literal "fuck-ton" of "free" information on the web! Not that I'm unfamiliar with what's online, but I'll tell you that nothing is free. And I mean that. Absolutely NOTHING. If they tell you it's free, that's because they want your email address, so that they can spam the holy shit out of you with "future purchase opportunities". I hate it. 

Anyway. I've taken advantage of a lot of the 'free' information. I'll tell you that my inbox looks like all I do is invite spam into it...there's so much shit in there. But I created a 'junk' email address for just this purpose. Nothing comes to my personal email. That would make me crazy. There's simply too fucking much of it. 

In my research, I've stumbled across the idea to create 'money making websites'. All that involves, is researching a 'hot' topic, and building a blog around it (this is not the blog, although I guess being out of work would be a 'hot topic' wouldn't it?). 

So...because I'm looking into doing some copy writing to make some money, this might just make some sense. 

I was up until the wee hours last night, creating a blog on something so totally mundane, I almost fell asleep making it, but it's essentially a test. I'll document everything I did, but at this point, the only thing that I won't tell you is what the blog is about (you don't need to be my competition). 

I've loaded it with a couple of articles so far, and I've set up an account at Commission Junction (cj.com) so that I can add affiliate links to it. I'd dabbled in affiliate marketing some years back, so I remember a little bit about that. 

Why affiliate income? 

Honestly, because the topic that the blog is about is so fucking boring, that I only want to set it up once, add some links and forget about it. It's not something that I want to be writing about every day. 

Stay tuned...

A. 

Two Things at Once

I'm an impatient person. I've never had a stick of patience, not one day in my whole life, and I think it's for that reason that I can't just do one thing, and wait to find out how it goes. 

That said, in addition to the "money making website/blog" that I built, I also am forging into the world of writing copy. I'm reading all kinds of stuff about whether or not I should 'niche' that endeavour, and I haven't decided whether or not to do that yet, but I've subscribed to something called AWAI (American Writers and Artists Inc.). They'd been sending me emails via their newsletter, and it was quite interesting. Some of those emails (honestly, most of them) were sales pitches disguised as 'pertinent information', and even though I knew full well that I was being 'baited', I chewed on that line like a hungry bass. 

The emails were full of testimonials from people just like me who were either tired of their previous jobs and decided to take the leap into writing, took their course and "whammo"...they're successful, and being in my position, I wanted IN! But the course is something crazy like $200, and honestly speaking, if I had the money, I probably would have clicked that fucking "Buy" button that comes at the bottom of every email. But I just didn't have it.

Then, about four days ago, they sent me another email. This one said that this was my 'last chance' to grab at this deal, but instead of the $197 that I would have had to pay yesterday, they'd give me a 30 day "trial run" of the course for (get this) $17! (No...this isn't a pitch for that course.) 

So...I have a small check depositing to my bank account this coming Monday, so I figured that I'd do it then. Seventeen bucks I could part with...no biggie. But when I looked in my bank account, the fucking thing said that all I currently have in there is .65 (yea...that's 65 cents!) I had to come up with some kind of cash anyway, so I asked my best friend to spot me a hundred bucks, and I'll give it back to her when I get that check on Monday. She's an angel, I honestly have no clue what I'd do without her. 

So...she lent me the money, and besides grabbing some groceries, I also got that $200 course for the $17 for a month. In this next 30 days, I'm gonna work like I've never worked before at getting every morsel of information I can out of that course. The plan is to start making money long before my month is up, because there's "fine print" in that $17 offer; in 30 days, they're going to bill my credit card for the remaining $180 unless I cancel it before then. Didn't notice that when I was eagerly typing in my credit card number. Smart cookies.

I'll just have to make this shit work before then.

Stay tuned...

A. 

Lost My Job...

So...like the title says, I lost my job. 

It happened a year ago this month, and I've since been on unemployment (that lasted 6 months), and have been doing odd jobs since then. To say that I'm broke would be a major understatement. I've been diligently hunting for work for almost a year, and honestly, I'm not about to flip burgers for a living (I'm way too "over-qualified" for that), but I'm determined to pull myself up by my bootstraps and make this thing work. 

At first, I did what most people instinctively do; I started looking for another job, but I knew in my heart that that wasn't what I wanted. I hate working for other people. I'm not particularly the most social person, and I can't stand stupid. My last manager was a horrible woman. I'm living proof that the universe hears every thought, and acts on it as though you asked for what you were thinking. 

One weird day, I walked into the office, and I remember thinking, "Holy shit I hate this place. It's depressing, and I can't stand most of the people. I hate it here." About three weeks later I was unemployed. Problem solved. 

I discovered that I have a talent for writing, so I decided that this is where I'm going to make my money for the next little while. In addition, lying in bed last night, I thought that keeping a running journal of this 'journey' would be kind of cool. 

At the moment I don't even have my own place. I got evicted a month ago, and a close friend has been kind enough to let me stay on her couch, but I need to get the hell out of here. I've never NOT had money or my own place (or a car for that matter), so to say that this is just 'uncomfortable' is a horrible understatement. The emotional stuff that comes with being out of work is almost unbearable. There have been days when I've just started crying for no 'real' reason. For the most part, I try not to think about my situation. That's the only thing that helps me keep it together. But on the odd occasion, the damn breaks, and it all comes rushing to the surface. 

I used to have it all; kids at home, big house, nice car, good job. Then one day, it feels like it was all just...gone. Though thinking back, it happened gradually, but I was too busy living life to notice. I can't blame anyone. I sort of just lived by the seat of my pants. As long as I was working, it was all good. Yes...there were times even then when I was frustrated as hell, but I wasn't sleeping on someone's couch. 

They say that most people are just "one pay check away" from being homeless. I don't think most people really understand how horribly close to being homeless most of us really are. All it took for me was to lose my job, and "poof". With no savings to speak of, it only took about 9 months for my 'creativity' to run out. But that was with me actively searching for someone to hire me. 

I'll also tell you at this point that I'm in my mid-40's, and I'm a woman (if that makes any difference). 

Right now it's almost 9 am, and I'm sitting on my 'bed' (the couch) writing this. I've been researching what it takes to 'become a writer', and by that I mean, what avenues do I need to take to start making money with my writing. I'll document what I did in another post...

Thanks for reading :)

A.