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How once woman went from being a SAHM of four to a published freelance science journalist |
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I'm revising this intro after more than 15 years to better reflect my intention When I started this blog in 2004, I was a stay at home mom to two small children, a college graduate with a degree in English and Astrophysics. By 2007, I had four small children, ages newborn, 2, 4, and 6. For several years, Writing.com was how I kept my sanity. This blog began, first as a way of staying connected. Later, when I worked on a novel, I used it to stoke the writing fires as I plotted out short stories and the next step of my novel. Ultimately, I moved my writing preparation to "Invalid Item"  In 2010, I became a single mom who had homeschooled her children for several years. I had a 2, 4, 6 and 8 year old and had never had a "real" full time job, since I was married while in college. Everyone told me that I would have to buckle down and take on a "real" job. Instead, I decided to attempt to live my dream: to make it as a writer. I knew that if I didn't try then, I would never really dive in. I counted my money and set a deadline. If I hadn't began making a decent (defined) amount of money after so many months, I would suck it up and get a J-O-B. After some thought, I decided to play to my strengths. I served an internship at Sky & Telescope magazine while in college and enjoyed writing about space and astronomy. With an astrophysics degree, I thought I would be able to sell myself more easily, and a small niche should be easier to penetrate. It's been about ten years since I was first paid for an article on Space.com. In that time, writing - journalism - has been my primary moneymaker. I've often thought about setting up a blog on my website - www.astrowriter.com - but just haven't gotten around to it. There are a few things I would like to share for those who are interested in scientific journalism in general. Now that I'm back on WDC, there's no reason not to combine the two and use the site blog for that sort of interaction. There are certainly plenty of folks on this site interested in the publication process. So while I'll probably meander around some, that's the intention of of this blog: to share some of my struggles as a published journalist and to help answer oft-asked questions. |
| We have arrived in Williamsburg, and are eagerly awaiting dinner!!! We have ordered out, some nice subs. And I am about to die from this hotel room - I think I coud stay here forever and not explore the historical district and be happy. We're in the Residence Inn Marriott, which Dave (the guy who hired dh) got on Priceline for $50/night. Oh my goodness. I am loving this place. We have a suite, seperate living and bedroom area, both with TVs. Sadly, we are only here for two nights. After that, we will be in some still-unknown place near the Outer Banks, NC for nearly two weeks. I am just hoping to find something similarly priced and placed, but I doubt we won't. Then again, we'll learn about the name of the city tomorrow, so I'm going to check out priceline just as soon as we get the info. I am going to try to walk around Williamsburg. There is a charge of $35 but everyone continues to insist that there is a free area. Anyone who has feedback, please pass it on! We are also looking at checking out Jamestown, that whole area. We will be here tomorrow night, too, so if dh finishes then we have some time to explore as a family. In the meantime, I need to work feel out an idea for an article. I wanted to compose one on Baby Shower themes, but I need to put together some ideas. I have a nice, original theme set up. Dinner is here so I am going now. I have several other items posted online at Constant Conent now; two, actually. Better run before dh has a fit! |
Oka, well, we are about to go out of town. We will be gone for 3-5 weeks. This is all very unexpected and a bit confusing, LOL, and I'll try to fill in later. Suffice it to say that dh got a temporary (not permanent  ) job involving travel that pays $25/hour (he offered $20/hour with no 1099 but we opted for taxes), reimburses for gas, pays for most of the hotel rooms (the ones that can be booked online) and reimburses for the rest, AND reimburses $25/day for food (he said since we were all going he would see about getting more, but that would cover our fast food dinner, and we already packed breakfast & lunch, so more is just a bonus). Very cool. We are going to Virginia Beach/Williamsburg, to the NC/VA border, and then on to Pennsylvania. I think it will be fun. We are leaving bright and early tomorrow.On the sell-out front, I went ahead and submitted my application for families.com. I sent it in as a gospel doctrine blogger for the LDS forum. That will be around $250/month for the first 3 months, and then closer to $325. Not a lot but I can do the blogs in maybe 15 minutes each, so I should finish all three in an hour and make $9 for said hour ($12 after the 90 period). Techinically, since it would be about 45 minutes, I would make $12 hour up to $16 hour, but it's all good. Not a lot, but every little bit helps. I've also started submitting articles on constant content. They are making me nuts, they take close to FOREVER to respond. I submitted four articles; they approved one thus far. Basically, I hit two a day, although none for today because I spent all day packing. Okay, that's it for this blog. I'll share some fun facts as we travel. I am taking my laptop and hoping for free wireless internet access - they have that everywhere, right? LOL. Forgive me for being out of touch, but we gots to go where the money is! Hope everyone has a great summer! SG |
| Okay, I have spent part of the day browing through constant content (http://www.constant-content.com/?aref=5849). I am back and forth on a few things. I am trying to decide if I should invest more energy here instead of working on the blogs for families.com (I gave the wrong address before, sorry!). I think perhaps I will try a solid week of writing, at least one if not two articles a day, for Constant Content. I submitted my first one today; it is pending review. It's a very humerous essay-type article on DD's birthday party. Anyway, if I can set the price on those articles, and can bring home $20/article, then I could conceivably make more money in the same time period for said articles. I put the article at $25 for a nonexclusive license (which means more than one person can purchase it) and $75 for an exclusive (one-time purchase) license. It's a 700 word piece, so that is .10/word. I don't know, maybe that is a little high. Perhaps I will leave it there for a little while and then consider bringing it down. It's not like it took a lot of research or work. I don't know. I guess I am looking at two options. On the one hand, I can take the blog and know that I will definitely get paid - not much but get paid. On the other hand, I could turn out some high-quality articles and get paid more for them. I can also spin off from them; for instance, if I wrote an article on, say, yoga, like I was looking at for the gym, there are several different ways to repackage it. I could spend an hour or two during research and then write three to five articles on that research. In fact, I could probably tap in well to the people who are at the gym. The down side, however, is that the articles have no guarentee of selling, thus no guarentee of money. I could also write several short and easy articles, which I am considering, for the $20/$40 range. I only bring home 65% of the selling price, so that would be $13/$26 earnings. Not a lot but making some money. I probably should've put this article into a lower range spot, but there you go. We'll see how it tests out. I am using my blog to plan again, LOL. Hope you guys don't mind bearing with me. I can spend an hour doing research while the kids are napping (during the day), and then do a short and easy article. Maybe write the S&E article first, then research. Then I can think about the research and the article in the afternoon, while playing with the kids, cleaning the house, etc, and write it in the evening, once the kids are in bed. This would give me a $10-earning article and a higher price (like, $50-75?) earning article each day. That would be a bring-home of around $45/day for three to four hours of work (including the research), or $10-15/hour. Not bad. And maybe less as I get more accustomed it; frankly, that last article went very quickly. I'm not sure about how long the research will take me, though. And, of course, who knows how long it will take for the articles to sell - if they ever do. On the plus side, they could sell more than once, so make even more. I am going to try to keep a spreadsheet list of them, just for curiousities sake, to see what my average hourly pay will be. I need to start thinking about an article to research for tomorrow. I have to get a bunch of stuff done for the gym tonight, and dh will be bringing the kids home so I'll be hugging on them. And then working for the gym. LOL. Suddenly, my wave of influence on articles seems to have dried up. I had a good bunch of ideas and now I seem to be freezing. But that's okay, I am going to brainstorm until I get something. There was something I thought of last night about doing, some type of health story. Not sure what it was right now. I am really excited about this. I am going to give it a good solid week and see how everything goes. The downside, of course, is that articles can take 2-3 days to be approved before being available to the public. Perhaps I should give it two weeks and go from there. Then again, my first concern is the acceptance level of CC; I want to be sure I am not rejected. <gasp> Reject me? How could they!  Anyway, off to do some research. If you look for me over on CC, I bet you'd be surprised to find I am...Scottiegazelle |
| Okay, I have a new plan. I wish I had developed this plan at this time last year. My plan, apparently, is to sell out on the route to publication. That is to say, I am going to write for cheap, for pennies on the dollar. Now, that said, I am going to try my hand at content-based writing. I am going to apply to write a blog (in the 300 word range) for myfamily.com. They pay a whopping $3/blog entry for the first 90 days, $4/entry thereafter. They want a minimum of 5 blogs a week, a max of 3 blogs a day. So in a 30 day month once I pass 90 days, I'd max out at $360/month. However, I figure a 300 word blog should take me a max of 15 minutes, maybe 20 on a bad day, so that is $9-12/hour. Not a huge salary, but decent for staying at home with my kids. So that is plan #1, which will generate a predictable income. Next on the list is a referral from karabu from my June blog entry, for Constant Content. For whatever reason, I dismissed the idea at the time it was recommended. However, as I was looking around at a WAHM site (the section broken down for writers), I found a great deal of information on content writing. I found a few sites, and a great deal of 'you are selling out, writing so cheap' (more on that later). Anyway, I like the set-your-own-price idea from CC, so that is the direction I am leaning. I have already looked at the requested article section, I am going to try writing from there which will hopefully increase my marketability, and I found two subjects that appeal to me. I will try them both. My plan is to write two additional articles each day; if I can get good and sell them on a daily basis, and make $10 (that's a lowball price but we'll see how it goes), that would be another $300/month. Hopefully more. I looked at writeforcash, as well, but they are not currently accepting new applications. They were going to be #2 on my priority list, but there you go. If I can get in later, they will be. They have a maximum of 20 articles per month and pay between $10-15 per article, so that's another $200-300/month. The overall goal here, obviously, is to make some money writing so that I can keep us supported. I figure I can write the blogs in the middle of the day - that's one hour - and do some research on the other articles for another hour, while the kids are napping. Then maybe I can spend 2 hours in the evening churning out two articles; we'll see how well that goes. This, of course, is a remarkably short term plan. The idea is to get us back on our feet, pay some bills with the money, and perhaps once we are stabilized continue long enough to get us out of debt. DH is going to continue wiring (he makes $75/hour doing that) and I will continue working at the gym (whopping $8/hour, but it's steady, at least). So that is the writing plan. Hopefully it works out! I have already written one sample piece for myfamily.com, so I am going to write the other two while the baby is napping and submit today. I'll probably poke around for a few other similar writing jobs that I can do from home. Wish me luck! It's working for peanuts, but at least I'll enjoy the job! |
| Okay, thought I'd make for a little more details while dh is out with the kids. I still feel like my head is spinning, but I am managing to write at least every other day in my business blog, which is fun. So I'm staying on top of that. My goal is to hit 25 entries this month - I have 7 or 8 so I need to work harder, since the month is almost over - and get a $50 Amazon.com gift card. And, of course, the increased exposure for my site. I actually got a nice email at my Redd Infinity business email in reference to a barter ad on Craigslist.com. It said: I originally became interested in your info because I'm looking to do some marketing on the side. However, after checking out your blog, I'm guessing you're already doing a pretty good job. I enjoyed the couple of articles I read.... Oh, goody. I sent an email to my boss at the gym in reference to a blog which I submitted and was republished that mentioned said gym. His response was: This is GOOD!!! You CAN write!! And make a point, too. Do you do that with or without kids crawling on you??? It's not fair if you do it 'without.' Very nice blog. Thanks for the plug. Wow, a compliment!  One from someone I don't know and one from someone I do. So despite being insanely busy, it's great to get some positive feedback, and to feel like I'm successful with my blog. I don't get a lot of comments over there, so sometimes I wonder if anyone is really reading. I just keep taking deep breaths and trying again and again and again. I am also hoping that it helps draw in some business. Just one job would be fantastic. But I am glad to see that it helped reinforce the possibility of a job; that makes me excited. As it is, however, I wind up with about 100 hits a day on the site. Though I only got 60 yesterday, hmmm. I will have to continue marketing it. Anyway, sixty hits is still decent, and if I can just keep it going...I am trying to take the lay back and be supportive route for the business for dh. I am going to put it virtually all into his hands. I am going to continue with the blog - which is some fun and helps me let off some steam - try to keep it up daily. I am going to finish writing and posting the ads for Cragslist. I am going to repost the blog entries as articles on ezinearticles.com with a link back to my business; I think that has been helping with the traffic. I always refer to it as an "Atlanta based low voltage wiring company' so as to draw in interested readers. All of those articles and craigslist ads turn up in Google, too, which is interesting. In the meantime, I am trying to put a bit more focus on my kids and my disaster-zone house. I am working on a 'wear the kids out' plan which involves taking them to the park across the street (about a 15 minute walk for my 3 year old) at least once if not twice a day. I am hoping that this will wear them out so that they collapse at bedtime. I am also sort of hoping to hit a point where they are exhausted at nap time, as well. That one is less likely, but I can always hope. In the meantime, I managed to hit about 25 hours of work at the gym over a two week period of time - not a lot, but most of it is done after the kids are in bed, which keeps me up late. So we'll be bringing home a nice paycheck there. Also, dh has been working 40 hours doing a job other than his wiring; he gets off at 3:30 and so gets to hit rush hour traffic on his way to a wiring job, but there you go. At least we're bringing home some money. He is supposed to do 40 hours for the first 2 weeks of the month, some possible other work included, and go from there. He hates it and it wears him out. It wears me out too because he isn't home a lot, so I have to handle more. But there you go. I keep dreaming of a nice salaried 40 hour a week office job that pays enough for our needs. Also of our house selling. I would die happy if our house would just sell. We have a nibble that I am hoping will turn into a contract; they said it would be pending replacement of the siding on our house. This would be done before the ink dried, if that were the case. So keep us in your prayers, there; I can't imagine NOT paying over $2000/month in house payments. I am holding my breath hoping this gets gone next week. Alright, I'm going to go enjoy a little more down time while the kids are gone with dh. They'll be home any minute, just ran to the store to get some propane and sandwhich meat. They went all the way to BJs which is about 20 minutes away, so I get a nice bit of time. The gas is almost 10c/gallon cheaper over there - don't even get me started on gas, <sigh>. |
| I know it's been awhile, adn this is a short, I'm-still-alive entry. I am worn out and stretched thin, and, as Kare said, in desperate need of a vacation. I feel like I'm wearing 35 hats. On top of that, I am seriously stressing about the whole unemployement situation. That said, I'm going to bed now. I meant to go earlier and once again stayed up too late (it'll take me about an hour to get all the way ready, since I am going to need a shower tonight, and then, of course, read to sleep). I'm going to try to start going to bed earlier and getting more sleep, which will hopefully keep me from staying up all night stressing out. I am also trying to add a bit more exercise to my routine, and to the kids. Today we did a lot of walking and playing. hopefully, this will wear them and me out. So far, I'm the only one exhausted; they didn't want to take a 'rest' (ie not a nap) today. They did go to sleep a little faster tonight, though. I promise to come back and update soon. I wish I had some positive news. I wish we had a job, and our house would sell. Right now, 2 housepayments and no job is killing me. On the plus side, we have a nibble about a contract, contingent on adding siding to the house. I am hoping and praying that goes through; dh said we should know by early next week. So keep fingers crossed and prayers said, cuz that will free up a huge chunk of money...wait, we have no money...it will be a huge bill less to pay each month. |
| I am in a 'blah' state of mind today. Too worn out to do anything. Including unload the dishwasher so the stuff can be reloaded. I am trying to convince myself to put a new trash bag in the kitchen so we can actually throw things away. The problem isn't the bag itself, per se, as much as all the crap I'll have to pick up. And I know then I'll start the dishes, clean the counters, all of which needs to be done but none of which I feel like doing. I need to do all this so I can throw the pizza dough in the bread machine - nope, too lazy to do it. I don't feel like writing, don't feel like reading. I tried to get my kids to take a nap by laying with them and almost fell asleep, which was nice, but DS1 (3.5 yo) wouldn't fall asleep, and I was laying beside him. Hard to fall asleep even when he is reading quietly, until he does. I need to do several things - work, clean, laundry. I could even get away with several wimpy things - reading a book for research or watching the news which I dub for research purposes. I don't feel like doing any of it. Need to pay bills - definitely don't feel like doing that. Shoot, I think my credit card bill is due, too. I guess I'd better go pay the bills. |
| I have something coming from writing.com. When I got my last package about two weeks ago, I scared the mailman (who brought the package to the door) by jumping up and down like a loon. I'm not sure he's going to survive this delivery. He may just drop the package and run. I would if I were him! Well, traffic is up on my business blog but still no calls. They invited me to be a featured merchant on merchant circle, though! More prominence. First, I am going to try yet another marketing technique. I have several affiliates on the site - people whose business are linked to me, and me to them - and I am going to contact them with a special offer. At the same time, I am trying to craft the Craigslist ads. I put together two last night. I have to put together two more tonight. I think I'm going to write up the special target ad tonight first, though, since it has a better chance of success than the random ones for CL. And I am hoping they will turn into more jobs and more networks. Oddly enough, I do a better job of brainstorming on ads when I write on paper, but I do stories better on the computer. Articles - depends on how much factual research is needed. Usually an outline works best for planning, and then I write it. I am featuring Redd Infinity all over the web. All of the blog entries that are about free business, since they are available on the web free anyway, I've put on free ezine services, with a link to my business in the bottom of the article. I am hoping that this will bring people to our site and hopefully some of them will actually come from Atlanta. We had a hundred visitors yesterday. I am waiting for validation. I am waiting for just one person to call. Just one single, solitary person. That would make my husband think I'm working, not just playing around. I will keep hoping to build up a blog following, and keep posting in Atlanta-based blogs, and eventually we will get there. <sigh> |
| Wow, hard to believe it is a holiday. It does feel like one, I admit. My inlaws wanted to take my two oldest home with them to spend the night last night, but not the baby. Poor kid, I didn't hear him in his room and I slept until about 10:30. He wasn't crying when I got up, just playing happily in his crib. He's a good baby. I guess he's not a baby; he's nearly 18 mos. He will be on the 1st of August. Hard to believe. Anyway, it was a great rest, and now he's napping - he exhibited the regular "I want to go to bed" behavior so I put him down, about an hour later than his usual nap time. Guess that means he was up for awhile. DH and I talked about the blog job and he is all for it if I get paid real money. I looked at the site and didn't see a blog available, so I'm guessing the job is still up for grabs. But we are waiting to hear back about a job in Montanta - I would love to move to Montana - and I don't want to start one job and then quit a week later. Then again, it is possible that I could continue it in Montana, since it is a blogging job...I'm not even sure the magazine itself is based out of Atlanta. But, if we move west, I'm not sure how well our business is going to continue. I'd like to see it keep going. Hmm, I wonder what turns up if you google 'billings montanta wiring'? There are a lot of sites, but none that seem overly dependent on wiring. I checked Service Magic and it only lists one wiring contractor. Anyway, I don't know yet. I guess if we hear back from Montana in the negative, I'll apply. In the meantime, there seems to be a ton of things to do for Redd Infinity. I need to create a variety of ads to run on Craigslist each day. I also talked to dh about contacting the people on Merchant Circle that we are affiliated with. A little more publicity, you know? We talked last night about offering a special deal for them, a free half hour of wiring work, either one simple job or a discount on a more complex job. The hopes is that we pick up an endorsement or two, and maybe some recommendations. I like that idea of upping the networking gig. Right now I should be working on the ads for CL, but I am just sort of blechy about it. I need to do it so we can pick up some more publicity. Craigslist is getting on my nerves with their duplicate post issues. I know they mean well, and they make a good point, but ARGH! But that's okay. I will go work on putting together another ad for our business. Guess I should do it now. Happy Independence Day! |
| The first, rough draft of 'a day in the life of me' for the magazine job A thousand articles and websites encouraging work at home moms scream for organization. I try hard to fulfill them all, but somehow life at home with three children under six doesn't fit neatly into a checklist. Still, I am by nature organized and strive to follow a loose schedule. If I'm lucky, I'll manage to wake up in the morning before my kids and get ready for the day. The rest of the time, however, I get to shower while my two oldest run in and out of my bathroom and bedroom. Most people sing in the shower; my morning ritual is an endless cry of, "Shut the door, shut the door!" Once I'm dressed and following Flylady's admonition to always wear lace-up shoes, I change and dress my youngest - almost 18 months - while encouraging my other two to put on their clothes. One of the smartest things I did was match and hang my five year old's outfits, which means they mostly match. I still haven't managed to set my three year old up the same...it's on my 'to do' list. I send my son and daughter down the driveway to pick up the paper while I make breakfast. Most days it's cereal, but if I'm in a good mood, or have more time than usual, we'll have pancakes. I encourage my kids to pick out a book and read while we are eating, while I flip through the newspaper. If I could get my husband to make and serve the pancakes, we'd be the reverse of the quintessential '50s sitcom. Granted, I could be spending the time bonding with my kids, but I give myself full marks for keeping the television off, at least. I do differ from Ward Cleaver in that I frequently shred my paper. I maintain a business blog, as well as writing a few freelance articles, so whenever I find something that inspires me, I carefully rip it out of the paper and set it in a pile. The rest goes in the recycling bin. When breakfast is over, I carry the mass - some days nothing, some days five articles or editorials - in and set it on my desk. After breakfast, we do a few quick chores - run the dishwasher, start the laundry, that sort of thing - and then I head over to my computer. We post three daily ads on Craig's List, and I'm responsible for the content. I slip all three onto the Internet, using the same ad I created previously in order to build continuity. The Craigslist is a new marketing plan, but we are having trouble with duplicates, and so we actually have to delete our previous ad. I am in the process of developing five ads to run through the workweek, highlighting various points of interest. I figure if I run the same ad every Monday, and a different ad every Tuesday, and so forth, that gives us both variety and continuity. We'll see how well that works. From Craigslist I bounce over to various business blogs I am scanning. Because our business is Atlanta based, I have RSS feed from various Atlanta blogs, personal as well as business. If I see anything of interest, I 'virtually' rip it out by jotting it down in my notebook. Next, I head over to my blog to see how many visitors have stopped by and what sort of comments have been made. The blog is new, and doesn't have a larger following yet, but I am hoping to change that. Part of the problem is that the host, Merchant Circle, is having some sort of login problem with new businesses, which is keeping my blog entries from showing up on the web. That said, we are averaging about 65 hits on our site a day. Once the search engine problem is fixed, I am confident we will increase traffic. If I'm lucky, my children have been playing sweetly while I glance through the headlines and start thinking about information. More likely, however, they have quietly destroyed the upstairs. As long as they stay out of my bedroom.... Trial and error has taught me that the best time of day for me to play with them is in the morning, so I devote the rest of the morning to playing games, coloring, and making some sort of craft. I plan to homeschool all three, so this is a good habit to get into. Sometimes my daughter will read to me and her brothers; other times, we'll make puppets. Most often, we just color and talk, or I read to them. Right now, we're reading one of my favorite books, Chocolate Fever. The kids love it. After lunch, it is 'quiet time'. That means the baby actually takes a nap, and my oldest two don't. They start off reading quietly in their beds, and then, after an hour, I'll give them permission to play quietly. These two hours are my work time. Most often, I'll consolidate the information needed into our blog, which targets small business owners. I am also seeking to create a newsletter for readers who don't want the hassle of checking a blog. Both of these are our marketing tools. Our plan is to target them to past and potential customers, so right now we are just working on getting our name out there. My husband does the 'hard and fast' work - he contacts the customers, sets the appointments, and does the actual wiring. I get to do the books, the marketing - basically, all of the organization. It's perfect, because that better fits my niche. Besides, it gives me an excuse to write in my blog, or just to write, which is my true love (after my family, of course). Most of the rest of the day is spent cleaning up, finishing laundry, and taking care of the kids. I do a little more online research if there is something edging into my brain. I reconsider and rework our ads - we just ran one in the AJC and I did considerable research on the best (and least expensive) verbiage. I start dinner. I eat dinner (this time without a book). Throughout the day, you are apt to find me reading something - I usually have two or three books out to read at once. One is fiction, because everyone has to have some fun, and the others are nonfiction, generally relating to our business. This week, I'm researching blogging; last week, I went through various copies of Guerrilla Marketing. It depends on what sort of question I want to have answered. Being an entrepreneur and a mom has its pluses and minuses. The best part, of course, is being able to stay home with my kids. The most difficult part is trying to get work done with the kids around. Most of my day is spent in an odd mesh of playing or working with my kids and actually accomplishing work for our business. |
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