Friday -

Well after a long two weeks with family being in town and the long drive to and from D.C. to drop them off at the airport, I'm finally back to work and getting back to a regular routine or at least as regular as it can get for me. My business seems to need a bit of help. At least in the advertising department. I'm no marketer even though I should be since I have to solely rely on myself to market myself.

The last big project I had was during the time family was here and as I was working on the project, the client decides he's going to email me saying he can only pay directly to my bank and needs my bank account numbers even though he previously said he paid via PayPal. I refused to give out my information and for good reason I'm sure you all will agree. He canceled the project without letting me know so now I'm out a large amount of $$$$ and unpaid for any work I have already completed.

This type of crap is why I hate my job sometimes. Finding legit clients seems to nearly impossible at times, but I guess its just part of the job. I never remember things like that happening years ago when I started my freelance business. Now that I've started once again, it seems like there are nothing but scammers out there just waiting for their next victim. The good news out of all of this with the last client is I never sent him any of the work I completed. Once he said he wanted my information and could not pay me in the form we had agreed upon a week before, I refused to send him any work.

Earlier this morning as I was cruising the bidding site, I saw his ad up on it again wanting bidders to bid on the very same project I had won two weeks ago. I feel like I should warn other bidders, but still feel as if I should just stay out of it.

Well, I guess I'd better get back to work so I can make some $$$ cause I damn sure not getting paid to blog.

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend. Be safe!

Moving Along...

I hope everyone is having a great Monday morning! So far so good on my end although I'm still exhausted from the events from the weekend. Saturday we (my boyfriend, his father, mother, sister, and myself) knocked down the wall dividing our (used to be) dining room and our living room. Our house was built in 1973 and back then apparently every room was separated and had a door on it. Our house is just like that. Our living room was small and cramped - not anymore. We decided to make our sun room into the dining room - it works great as that and Saturday we had our first lunch party. The picture above is the first hole and "We have light!". It was so great to see light coming through into this room. I just can't wait until its completed and we can enjoy it. Right now it is completed other than the tape and floating of the drywall and the paint of course.

Yesterday afternoon I was cruising the job boards for freelance writers and noticed such disappointing and down right insulting ads. Some clients are only willing to pay anywhere from $.50 to $1.50 for 500 - 1,000 words. I remember a time when you were paid by the word even if it was only a penny for each word. This is ridiculous! Why are people so cheap. I hire writers and due to my budget can only pay them a penny a word, but I would never ask someone to write on a per article base of such a low rate. My writers write from a template where all the information is given to them and all they have to do is put it into words. No researching for various material needed. I'm hoping to find much larger projects with a much larger budget so that my two writers and I can bring in a much larger income. 

Ah, the good old days when clients were willing to pay what a writer was worth at least come close to it. I hope those days haven't vanished. If they have, I may have to change my line of work. I enjoy being a freelance writer. I love working from home and having time to do what I want to do while still being able to complete my work. It has been a bit tough in the last few weeks due to the renovations, but that will be done by next weekend and my office can be placed where I can get some work done and I will be able to take on much more work than I currently can. 

I came across this posting Liquid Silver - Geeks Need Love To and thought maybe I'd post it here and I myself may attempt this. Considering one of my MS in my novel is a geek per say.The deadline is in June, so it doesn't leave much time to finish it. I do not know anything about this company, so before you submit (if you choose to) please do some research on the company to find out if they are legit or not. 

This is going to be such a busy, busy, busy week. I'm in the process of selling my truck so that I can buy a 4-cylinder car (2002 VW Jetta). We have to complete the renovations on the house and I have quite a few projects due before the end of the week as well as searching out for new clients so the income will begin to flow. Then there's my novel which I'm not so sure I should write in first person present tense. I think I may change it to first person past tense and the book I'm wanting to finish reading, "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer. I want to finish it before I watch the movie.

Projects await, so I'm off.