Time to catch up

I have not taken the time to keep up with this blog. I have been sidetracked by a writing assignment on Helium where I am making enough money to support my vacation this year. We will be homeschooling our grandson next year and the trip to Missouri to visit family will also give us a chance to learn more about American History.

I am also have to rewrite all my eHow articles as I did not move to Demand Media and all of my articles were deleted. Since it leaves me with quite a few dead links on the other sites where I write, it is important to take those articles and recreate them on Squidoo.

I did rewrite my favorite, How to escape from Godzilla, which I am very proud of and it can be found on the link to Wordstock's Lensography if you are interested.

I'm a Giant Squid

I know, blah, blah, blah but it's a big deal. It means that I have created 50 lenses that are good. I am a good writer and getting better everyday. I am now up to 70 lenses and my goal before April is 100. Then I will apply for the 100 club. Helium is going well but I need to pick up the pace. I have slacked off and that's not good for me either. Both sites are very different and both challenge me in different ways. I am writing local guides and have decided to stretch my comfort zone by writing to areas in different states. They require a lot of research but I need to learn that as well.

Baseball season has started and so it's killing my time. I wish I had a laptop with wireless but that has to wait. I will have to learn better time management skills and that won't hurt me.

I have been really busy on Squidoo

I've written more than 20 lenses. Been selected to be a SquidAngel for the month of December and applied to be a giant squid. Helium has taken a backseat. Now I am going back there to catch up on my rating and grading. I did submit 3 articles to the new marketplace system and will see if it is worth my time. Until the articles closes I will not know if I made $6.00, $3.00 or absolutely nothing.

It's Christmas Day. Everyone is still asleep. This is the last day that my Christmas lenses will do well. I almost made it to the top 100 with "I heard the bells on Christmas Day" landing at 162 today. Now, I'll have to wait until next year to see how it does.

I hate change

OK, I don't hate change but good grief, changes that are dumped on a talented bunch of writers at the last minute make such a muddle of everything. Helium has changed its payment policies and everyone is in an uproar. Given the new titles that they are offering, I can't find anything to write to and even if I did, there is no promise that I will earn anything but pennies. Still, I will wait and see before making a decision.

In the meantime, I am a RocketMom on Squidoo and have written 18 lenses in the last two weeks. I was also asked to be a SquidAngel and I get to go around and bless lenses that I think are great. It's a 30 day adventure and I have set a lens up to track those I bless. These are the ones that I have found something that touches me or are just very well done. It's been very fun there and while I will not make lots of money, it gives me more space to spread my wings. I can write in 1st person, I can be silly and I can address topics that mean something to me. The serious lenses are not monetized and not aggressively promoted. I think it's a choice on my part because to try to make money from them is against what I believe. Any, Squidoo is fun.

Still not spending time on Helium

Squidoo is just more fun right now although I know that the payout at Helium is greater. There are two days left in the month and I will spend all my time at Squidoo. Come December 1st, it's back to Helium. I have thing that need to be done there. It's hard to switch back. Squidoo allows me to really play with topics and interject my own quirky thoughts. Oh well, at least I have two more days to play.

Change in focus

I have not rated or written on Helium in over a week. In fact, I haven't even logged in. My focus has been on Squidoo and I have been writing there. It's a problem because I can make money on Helium and it's needed for Christmas. I am just having more fun on Squidoo. I have made 11 lenses this month and I am really proud of several of them. I received an invitation to join the RocketMoms and am working on the challenge. Along the way, I have discovered that Squidoo rewards with points and silly bonus stuff that is just fun. Since most of my lenses are new, they are not earning. Even my older lenses don't make money because they are not monetized.

I'm not sure why Helium is not where I want to be. It really doesn't matter, I have to start next week because money is money. Maybe the break will be good.

We're writing a novel

The folks in the Writing Challenge group are writing a novel called "Invitation to Wishworth Castle". We are all doing a chapter and I did chapter 2. It's open to anyone who wants to join in. We currently have 4 chapters written and it's quite amazing what each one adds to the story. Can't wait to see how it grows and ends.