No time for paragraphs, so I'll just do this feed-style. Two weeks of doing "test assignments" for potential clients who found me through freelancing sites resulted in a fair amount of SEO learning, but little follow-through from those marketing organizations.  (Part of why I joined WA when I did--waiting to hear about my "team acceptance" from 10 different places was driving me nuts.)  Now, today, got both acceptances and assignments (with deadlines, of course) fro

I really loved iFaith's comment on my last blog post.  She pointed out that there's been a recurrent theme of defining parameters.  "Passion and Profit, Entertainment and Valuable Offer, Content & Traffic, Left and Right, etc..."  Yeah, you helped me see why this isn't just spinnin' my wheels.  Thanks for that, Faith.  For anything that 's going to require a big investment of time and energy, it's good to do some defining, some searching, some coming to te

For the last 15 years, I've been hearing about my brother's bachelor friend "Artie."  The quintessential "early adopter," Artie has been a limitless source of tech-gadget knowledge and "obsolete" graphics cards and TV's.  Because Artie took a shine to my brother way back when Mike was a starving grad student, he became one of Artie's designated recipients of techie treasures. Mike also got to witness the evolution of Artie's 15-years-in-the-making, nothing

"What do you do?" "I'm a freelance writer." It was only a few months ago that I became comfortable answering that question, since the general expectation seemed to be that I ought to be pounding the pavement looking for a "real job." And now I am just beginning to let the words "Internet Marketer" roll off my tongue.  Almost as an experiment, really--because I haven't made money at it yet.  I wanted to see how people would respond.  And, not

Jamie's comment got me thinking yesterday. Both of those niches (over-40 dating and WiMax providers/devices) are worth pursuing.  One is all tech-driven and seriously left-brained--and the other could just be a heck of a lot of fun. WiMax...reporting on areas that are about to get coverage...reviewing the Clearwire service plans...evaluating the marvelous gadgets that go with the technology....  (I managed to get a very nice .com domain name, and I installed and began to set up a Word

 Soccer, dinner, and the obligatory soft ice cream run taken care of.  Now where was I?  Oh yes, I was doing my thing, happily drilling down into the dating niche--thinking of all the great content I could write blog upon blog about dating for the first time after 40. (Monetized most likely with ads for some cool, niche-y dating sites)   Tips on being a halfway decent conversationalist...and how to write a killer dating profile.  And how to gracefully wriggle out

Once, not too many years ago, I took the Myers-Briggs Personality test.  After the results were tabulated, the guy spent some time interpreting it all for me. "You're someone who's in love with possibilties." "Oh yes, possibilities are beautiful.  Just like Emily Dickinson wrote, 'I dwell in possibility..." "Well, as beautiful as possibilities are, the danger for your type is that you are having so much fun seeing all that is possible that you don't commit to j

One of the reflection questions from today's lesson was whether I place myself among the highly motivated 10% or among the sorta-slidin'-along 90%.  I know I am in that 10%.  I can work with greater energy and focus than most of the people I know.  I have never missed a writing deadline, never been the type to just coast along.  Heck, I got a master's degree (4.0 GPA) AFTER my fourth child was born--while I was teaching part-time, teaching kindergarten Sunday school, and coor

This is very random, because it has been that kind of day.  Thoughts swirling around in my head--some related to my freelance writing business and IM aims, some to my divorce and related life shakeups, some to my college-age daughters just home for the summer and turning up their noses at the thought of working at Target.  Oh, and finally, a fair amount of daydreaming about the sweet, cozy little house I am getting ready to move into.  The first thing I have ever owned outright i