Yesterday was especially productive time spent on my 50 Hour Challenge. In addition to the time with my son, I had gotten some writing done earlier in the day and prepared some handmade American Indian jewelry to photograph. My photography is another one of my incomes streams (self-employment).

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING MEETINGS

When  Bob Schmuck and I get together we usually do the following:

• Brainstorm
• Write articles, content, intros, etc. (me)
• Submit articles to directories (Bob)
• Create/update website designs (Bob)
• Blog comment submissions (both of us)
• Plan future projects (both of us)
• Keyword research (Bob)

BASECAMP FOR WEBSITE MARKETING AND DEVELOPMENT MEETINGS

Basecamp is a free service (click on pricing, then in small print the free option is under the price boxes on the right) that is upgradeable. Yesterday we set up a Basecamp project for our work. We are going to upgrade in the future, but for now, we are using the free option. We started with having our meeting under milestones and then added a to-do list that covered everything that we did. This will be a good document of how we progressed and we will be able to evaluate the length of time until we see results from our work. The write board will be used to list ideas for future meetings.  This should help us be more efficient in the future when we meet.

One of the main reasons we want to upgrade is to be able to share files and also to be able to have more than one project.

INTERNET VENTURES UPDATE

Adsense-My Internet income from Adsense is continuing to break personal records as the results of previous Internet marketing is seen.

Jan’s Writing Services-Bob and I re-connected on Facebook with an Internet marketer that we met years ago online. He contacted me regarding doing some writing for him. I am no longer writing for Karma Snack due to inconsistencies in my delivery of articles. I’m looking forward to using what I have learned with new clients.

The re-organization of Jan’s Writing Services included working for my family first, getting new writers, setting up schedules, and only working with clients who have professional business practices. The fresh start will fit in perfectly with my re-organization. New clients won’t have unproductive practices that will need to change and I will start with a clean slate. This will be great for everyone.

(2 hours writing, 2 hours marketing,1 hour brainstorming)

TOTAL     20/50 hours

I woke up this morning refreshed and excited about my challenge. It helped that I am seeing results on my Adsense income from working regularly on my sites with my son, Bob Schmuck.

I have many domains. Some are being used and some are not. Before I can figure out how to use what I have, I need to know what I have, so today I made a list of all my domains and categorized them. This is how I categorized them:

• C-Christian (religious themed)
• F-family (for family business)
• G-general (can be used for anything)
• H-health (anything medical)
• M-miscellaneous (isn’t part of one of the categories)
• O-other (have for someone else)
• P-personal (for my own stuff)
• R-review (used for back links)
• S-savings-how to save money

I then marked if they had a website or blog and if I had anything to put on it right away. I have a few starter (general) domains that I use to get a site or blog started. If it goes good then it gets transferred to its own domain. There were 2 that could transfer to their own domain.

Since Bob Schmuck and I work together, he is going to do the same and then we can coordinate our efforts and link to each other.

TOTAL      4/50 hours

With the new local searches on the Google search results pages, adding a page for Arizona was helpful. I am on the first page when searching for Orchid plants Arizona and for AZ. I think it is important to use the abbreviation in the article when working on state keywords.

We took a little break around the holidays, but my son and I work on getting together once a week. Not only do we accomplish a lot, we also get motivated. That motivation lasts the week!

I am on my way to my son’s to work on some of our projects together. With my new found encouragement, I am looking forward to working together even more. We our good partners because we have different skills and strengths. He is a skilled marketer and knows code. I am skilled at writing and always have ideas. Together we accomplish a lot and the momentum started lasts long after we work together.

I had been waiting for my son to get a chance to look at it for me. He isn’t real familiar with WordPress, but he knows enough about coding that he can usually figure things out. He has been busy with work, his sites, and paintball and hasn’t been able to take a look at it. I’m kind of glad now because if felt REALLY good to figure it out myself!

The problem was when I changed the permalink. I customized it to have the post name in the link. When I looked at the options for permalinks, I saw all the others include index.php/ and when I looked at my posts, they did not have that. I added that to the customized permalink and at first it didn’t work. I was sad and then I looked closer and realized that in my excitement I typed indes.php/, well I corrected that and it worked!

I believe my son was as excited as me because I think he may have been dreading bringing his sister home because I would’ve tried to get him to stay and fix my blog!

I am a BIG step closer to launching the blog now! It IS a beautiful day in my entrepreneurial neighborhood.

ENTREPRENEURIAL CHANGE STARTED WITH PRAYER

It all started with a hard hit that came up from the past that knocked me down, knocked the wind out of me, and injured my self-confidence. Once I caught my breath, I stood up and was ready to fight for what is right and just. I started with lifting those who are responsible for the injustice up in prayer, thanks to a fine pastor that I know reminding me to do just that. Not only am I developing great spiritual biceps with all the lifting, I am less distracted. What was blocked from my view is now clear. I can see where I need to go and am working on locating the path I will need to take to get there.

NEW DIRECTION IN INTERNET VENTURES

I’m going to take my overflow of ideas and thoughts to video. The first step is to get a new camera that has HD video capabilities. I will have more details soon.

I’m looking into taking a big jump into my Internet ventures. The things that I see I need to do will take time, focus, and some funds. I’m at the edge of the water, ready to jump in!

A DAY OFF FROM WAGE EARNING

Hopefully today, my son will get my blog to help people in financial crisis working. I’m excited about sharing that. I’m not going to focus on getting it on the first page as much as word of mouth. I’m going to start with some business cards to pass around.

Tonight I’m going to dinner at a friend’s and talk to her mom about writing articles.

My day off from wage earning will be spent with my daughter, my son, and writing. Tonight I work, but it isn’t until late.

Knowing the direction to go has been energizing!

Today, with the help of Bob Schmuck, I hosted my domain and put up a WordPress blog. I like the theme, but it needs some tweaking so that it looks right. He is going to help me with that another day. I’m excited that I have it up though and will work on it more before I show anyone.

I don’t know that I will market this a lot on the Internet, but will share it with people that I know so that they can share it with people that they know it will help. There is too much competition for the keywords and I don’t have the time to work on marketing right now.

Even if I increase my hourly wages (which is difficult in these economical times), I will still be putting in hours to make money for whoever I work for. Even writing, I write articles that bring in income for others. The solution is to increase my passive income. I keep putting off working on my projects and it just prolongs how long I will be working so many hours. I can’t keep putting it off, I need to integrate my projects in, so I started yesterday.

ENTREPRENEURIAL SATISFACTION

Every time I write for my own entrepreneurial projects and on subjects I enjoy it always reminds me that I it is energizing and motivating. I love writing for pay, the income it brings, and the freedom in my life because of it, but it is not the same as writing for my own projects and topics that I already are knowledgeable about.

IF NOT NOW, WHEN WILL I WORK ON MY PROJECTS?

Instead of finding reasons to put off working on my Internet projects, I need to find reasons to work on my own projects. There will always be more articles to write, hours to work, calls to cover people who call out at work, and it will prolong me reaching my goal of having the  financial freedom to make choices how I want to spend my time and how I earn money. I have to start NOW to make my projects important.

WHAT I HAVE DONE ON MY INTERNET PROJECTS

I have some posts here on Jan’s Ideas, on Jan Fran’s Redneck Yard, and on Jan’s Group Home Support. Each has a couple posts that are scheduled for the next few days. I wrote 2 articles for directories. One for the Orchid Plant Site and for Jan’s Group Home Support. The Orchid Plant Site is one that Bob and I have started marketing for, so I want to keep up the momentum. I had one click on Jan’s Group Home Support that paid out over $3, so I took that as a sign to work on marketing that one.

Well, back to my article orders.

PROJECT FINANCIAL RESTORATION

I just about have all the overdraft fees paid! I am getting child support again, so that should help a lot. I have kept utilities and my cable (necessary for Jan’s Writing Services) from being turned off. The food in the frig lasted until I got paid. I’m working on rent next and a personal loan. I’m just taking it one step at a time and trying hard not to panic or give up!

JAN’S WRITING SERVICES

I’ve had some record days getting articles out. I plan to do the same today and tomorrow. The only days that I didn’t get a lot of articles out was when I only had a couple hours between shifts. The last couple of overnights kicked my butt and I had to get some sleep. My daughter is helping with the house so I can focus on my writing! She is such a blessing. Bob Schmuck has also been a great help with getting articles together for me. I should get them today so I should be able to get a lot of articles out.

ADSENSE

About 2 weeks ago I hit my $100 to get an Adsense check. It took me only 4 1/2 months this time. I try not to be discouraged as others get nice checks every month. I missed having my best month ever by just a few cents. The check that I get will the largest one ever. It has motivated me to write an article for one of my own projects in between groups of articles that I am writing. I hope before the end of the year I can share Jan’s Group Home Support with those I know in the profession. Before I do that I want to I need to have more current articles and some scheduled to post in the future. In case I don’t get to post for a few weeks, I don’t want to loose the new visitors because there isn’t enough new content.

Well, that’s it for now….off to writing!

As I enjoyed myself in Idaho, I missed a bank error. I walked a financial line and fell off the cliff! With rent due and fees to be paid, it will take a little time to climb back out, time I don’t have. My son, Bob Schmuck, is helping me to get some articles that are on back order done. He is writing down the process so that we can later share it with others.

As I count down the days until I need to come up with a large amount of money, I am tempted to beat myself up for making the mistakes I did and having poor judgment as I juggled my money. Instead I have chosen to stop kicking myself and forgive myself (once again) and look for how to make good out of this. The good….

• Growth of my faith and belief in God’s mercy
• Inspiration of financial changes
• Ideas for new websites
• Creation of efficient processes for my writing business
• Pushed to achieve my maximum potential

So the first is only days away. I have one invoice that should be paid any day and no paychecks until after the first. I started “operation financial restoration” three days ago. Now….let the earnings begin!!