Today I was approached about a new writing opportunity. Someone that I know has a new magazine that they are starting locally. They contacted me on Facebook to see if I would be interested in writing for them. This will be an ongoing job that I will do every month and eventually bi-monthly.
I am so excited about this new venture! I could not be more happy that she had the faith in my ability to come to me with this job. Life is good right now. It is a wonderful thing to love what you do!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
More About Coupons
I have received a few questions about using coupons so I thought I would elaborate. I know some people spend hours a week on this and go all out. I still save money, but I don't do that at all. I have a coupon binder that I keep my stuff in and I update it about once a week. It is simply a binder and then the inserts inside it are baseball card protectors so that I have a lot of little pockets. I spent about $10 to make it. Here you can see what it looks like and how it is set up.
I don't spend very much time on my coupons. I follow The Krazy Coupon Lady on facebook. I found out about her on a show she did on TLC called Extreme Couponing. You can read the article about it here. She does a lot of the work for me. She posts about stores in her area and matches up the ads/coupons. I use the ideas that she posts if I have the same store and coupons. She has a book out that I want to buy, but have not yet.
If I go to a store and find out one of my coupons is amazing and they pay me to use it, then I check eBay for more of them. I don't pay a lot, but if it still saves me a ton of money spending $2 might be worth it. You can also use services that clip coupons and sell them, but I have not tried this yet.
I watch a lot of television so I sit and clip coupons while I watch TV. I am usually done for the week in less than an hour long show so it is not that time consuming. You can find the time to do it if it is something important to you.
I don't spend very much time on my coupons. I follow The Krazy Coupon Lady on facebook. I found out about her on a show she did on TLC called Extreme Couponing. You can read the article about it here. She does a lot of the work for me. She posts about stores in her area and matches up the ads/coupons. I use the ideas that she posts if I have the same store and coupons. She has a book out that I want to buy, but have not yet.
If I go to a store and find out one of my coupons is amazing and they pay me to use it, then I check eBay for more of them. I don't pay a lot, but if it still saves me a ton of money spending $2 might be worth it. You can also use services that clip coupons and sell them, but I have not tried this yet.
I watch a lot of television so I sit and clip coupons while I watch TV. I am usually done for the week in less than an hour long show so it is not that time consuming. You can find the time to do it if it is something important to you.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
My Fun with Coupons
Since I work from home, I also try to cook at home as much as possible. I am not great about this, but I am improving. I have started to become an Extreme Coupon person. I don't usually buy a ton of coupons from eBay or clipping sites, but I do get the weekly paper and my mom passes her coupons on to me as well. I wanted to share my coupon experience from today. I went to the local commissary where stuff is cheaper. I try to shop here most of the time, but it is a bit of a drive if I just need a couple of things. Here is what I picked up today. 
I spent $2.00 on the Maalox coupons on eBay. They were for $5 off of a bottle. I got them for $3.99 which means they paid me to buy them. I had coupons for other items I bought as well. Two things on the shopping trip did not have coupons.
I got a grand total of $51.16 worth of groceries for only $6.56! It was $8.56 if you count what I spent on the coupons. Not a bad deal at all! I will be sharing the Maalox with family, but if they are going to pay me to buy something I want as many as I can get for myself. I love saving money!
I spent $2.00 on the Maalox coupons on eBay. They were for $5 off of a bottle. I got them for $3.99 which means they paid me to buy them. I had coupons for other items I bought as well. Two things on the shopping trip did not have coupons.
I got a grand total of $51.16 worth of groceries for only $6.56! It was $8.56 if you count what I spent on the coupons. Not a bad deal at all! I will be sharing the Maalox with family, but if they are going to pay me to buy something I want as many as I can get for myself. I love saving money!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Making Money as a Blogger
Do you realize that you can make money on your blog? Many people blog, but do not realize that it can be profitable as well. I am pretty new to blogging and I am just learning, but I want to share a few ways with you that you can earn money on your own blog.
Ad Placement
You can use a company such as Google Adsense or Chitika and allow them to place ads on your blog. When anyone clicks on these ads, you will make money. This is my main source of income from my blog, so if you ever see an ad that interests you feel free to click. You can choose from other companies as well, but these are the only ones that I use at this time. I love Google besides the fact that it has a $100 minimum payout so it might be Christmas before I see my money.
Affiliates
You can sign up with companies to earn money when someone purchases something from them. The only one I have set up so far is Amazon. If someone purchases a book or anything from their site through your link, you earn a percentage of the money. You can add links to your blog such as this one. This is one of my favorite CD's ever so I just used it as an example.
Blogging for Companies
Certain companies will pay you to write a blog for them about their product. I have done a couple of these and you can tell which ones they are because they mention that they are sponsored. Get a Free Belly Bag is the one I did recently. They are easy to do and pay pretty good. I use a company called Social Spark. You can also earn money for referring people to them so if you sign up please use the link since it is my referral. I know there are other companies out there, but I have not tried any yet so if you have experience with them please feel free to share.
Ad Placement
You can use a company such as Google Adsense or Chitika and allow them to place ads on your blog. When anyone clicks on these ads, you will make money. This is my main source of income from my blog, so if you ever see an ad that interests you feel free to click. You can choose from other companies as well, but these are the only ones that I use at this time. I love Google besides the fact that it has a $100 minimum payout so it might be Christmas before I see my money.
Affiliates
You can sign up with companies to earn money when someone purchases something from them. The only one I have set up so far is Amazon. If someone purchases a book or anything from their site through your link, you earn a percentage of the money. You can add links to your blog such as this one. This is one of my favorite CD's ever so I just used it as an example.
Blogging for Companies
Certain companies will pay you to write a blog for them about their product. I have done a couple of these and you can tell which ones they are because they mention that they are sponsored. Get a Free Belly Bag is the one I did recently. They are easy to do and pay pretty good. I use a company called Social Spark. You can also earn money for referring people to them so if you sign up please use the link since it is my referral. I know there are other companies out there, but I have not tried any yet so if you have experience with them please feel free to share.
Monday, February 21, 2011
How Associated Content Works
When you first start writing for Associated Content, it can be a bit overwhelming. You are allowed to pick assignments off the desk or write about anything that you want to and submit it yourself.
If I am writing about coloring pages, parenting, travel, or product reviews just to name a few, I submit them up upfront payment. You will get anywhere from $2 on up to $7 or more. Your upfront payments will increase as your clout increases and your page view average. I have seen mine going up lately.
You can also submit as display only. This is what I do on articles such as television reviews, music reviews, movies, and book reviews. They do not pay upfront on these. If a popular show such as "The Bachelor" is on, I can write a recap of it. I will get over 3,000 views in one day on it. You want this type of article to post right away plus they won't pay upfront on it anyway.
I have received upfront payment on a few articles that are music or movie related. One example is this article about Lady Antebellum. Another article that I received upfront payment on was Top 10 Quotes About Love from the Movies. These are considered evergreen which means people will still look at them months or years from now and not just this week or month.
I get paid to write a few TV articles on AC, but this is because I am part of the program with a beat desk. They contacted me about this on their own. To get these options and also articles targeted to you, the best way is to write about what you love. If they like your writing and have more in this area, they might contact you.
They are also changing their featured contributor program. I do not know much about how the new one will work, but will blog on it when it goes live.
If I am writing about coloring pages, parenting, travel, or product reviews just to name a few, I submit them up upfront payment. You will get anywhere from $2 on up to $7 or more. Your upfront payments will increase as your clout increases and your page view average. I have seen mine going up lately.
You can also submit as display only. This is what I do on articles such as television reviews, music reviews, movies, and book reviews. They do not pay upfront on these. If a popular show such as "The Bachelor" is on, I can write a recap of it. I will get over 3,000 views in one day on it. You want this type of article to post right away plus they won't pay upfront on it anyway.
I have received upfront payment on a few articles that are music or movie related. One example is this article about Lady Antebellum. Another article that I received upfront payment on was Top 10 Quotes About Love from the Movies. These are considered evergreen which means people will still look at them months or years from now and not just this week or month.
I get paid to write a few TV articles on AC, but this is because I am part of the program with a beat desk. They contacted me about this on their own. To get these options and also articles targeted to you, the best way is to write about what you love. If they like your writing and have more in this area, they might contact you.
They are also changing their featured contributor program. I do not know much about how the new one will work, but will blog on it when it goes live.
Get a Free Belly Bag
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of CryoCell International. All opinions are 100% mine.
If you are pregnant, you can get a free belly bag. These are really cute. If I was pregnant, I would want one for sure! Plus a mom can never have too many bags. I know I was always using them for something when my kids were little.
If you are interested in this free bag, go to www.Cryo-Cell.net
This is where you will need to sign up for the free bag. www.Cryo-Cell.com
I know that I am always happy to get something for free!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Companies that I Freelance Write for from Home.
I started freelance writing in the summer of 2010. When I first started writing, I spent most of my time at textbroker. If you are level 4 here, you can make pretty good money. This site does not have as much work available now as they did when I first started writing. I still write here, but not as much as I did when I first started writing.
They always say to have a lot of eggs in your basket and I have done just that for myself. I was really nervous at first that I would lose eggs or something would fall through on me. Here is a list of all of the places that I write for at least one time a month so that I do not lose my privileges.
- Wordgigs - We have a love/hate relationship depending on what they have available.
- Break Studios - I love them, when I can find good titles. They pay $8 per article.
- Bright Hub - They pay $10 per article plus residuals, but it is not my favorite place to write with all of the rules.
- Factoidz - I really enjoy writing for them. You can read more about it here.
- List my Five - I am really still just playing around with this site. I have only made about $5 on there.
- Seed - This site is through AOL. They don't usually have a lot available, but when they do the pay is amazing. I have been paid $10 for a 50 word article and nope that is not a typo.
My two main eggs are Associated Content/Yahoo and Examiner. I have a love for both of these places. Associated Content pays me upfront for articles plus residuals. They even put them up on Yahoo when the article belongs there. They are always adding new things. I write 14 TV articles a month for here and I could not be happier. I get to use my imagination and write about what I want to write about with this site.
Examiner is where I feel like I am gambling. I never know if the article will do well or not until I put it up, but I have had amazing luck here so far. I will make more on this site alone this month then I used to make with every single place that I write online.
Feel free to ask me anything you want about any of these sites and I will reply or make a future blog post about it.
They always say to have a lot of eggs in your basket and I have done just that for myself. I was really nervous at first that I would lose eggs or something would fall through on me. Here is a list of all of the places that I write for at least one time a month so that I do not lose my privileges.
- Wordgigs - We have a love/hate relationship depending on what they have available.
- Break Studios - I love them, when I can find good titles. They pay $8 per article.
- Bright Hub - They pay $10 per article plus residuals, but it is not my favorite place to write with all of the rules.
- Factoidz - I really enjoy writing for them. You can read more about it here.
- List my Five - I am really still just playing around with this site. I have only made about $5 on there.
- Seed - This site is through AOL. They don't usually have a lot available, but when they do the pay is amazing. I have been paid $10 for a 50 word article and nope that is not a typo.
My two main eggs are Associated Content/Yahoo and Examiner. I have a love for both of these places. Associated Content pays me upfront for articles plus residuals. They even put them up on Yahoo when the article belongs there. They are always adding new things. I write 14 TV articles a month for here and I could not be happier. I get to use my imagination and write about what I want to write about with this site.
Examiner is where I feel like I am gambling. I never know if the article will do well or not until I put it up, but I have had amazing luck here so far. I will make more on this site alone this month then I used to make with every single place that I write online.
Feel free to ask me anything you want about any of these sites and I will reply or make a future blog post about it.
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