Honored and Amazed, MOWA awards

One should always enter as many categories as possible for awards, particularly if it doesn't cost anything to enter. This year, for the Michigan Outdoor Writer's Association, I placed entries in three categories. Now, I have to be honest, since I won one award last year, I was thinking I might get one again this year, but I never expected what did happen.

The biggest surprise was the one pictured above, which is for photography. Let me explain that the photos submitted had to have appeared in a publication for which you were paid. That limits my selection a lot. In fact, it eliminated all of my really good photos. But, I did enter two pictures. This one took 3rd place. It's Cedar Falls at Hocking Hills, Ohio.

So, while I was still in shock from that one, I also received 3rd place in the category I thought most likely to receive something. This is the same as last year, a story about a non-consumptive activity (eg, not hunting or fishing). My entry was the story of my Midland to Mackinac hike last fall.

And then, I couldn't believe I heard my name again, for 3rd place in best overall column. I feel as if this is quite a big deal, because a lot of the writers do regular columns, and I'm pretty sure there was some stiff competition.



So, I'm a bit flabbergasted. And, I made a few more friends this year, so little by little I'm feeling as if I might fit in.

They explained that they have people from out of state judge these, some people with national media connections, so they are making every effort to be sure the judges don't know who wrote the entries. We have to redact anything that would clue someone in as to who wrote the articles.

2018 MOWA award

New Writing Site- Bubblews

I've started writing at the site called Bubblews. The basic idea is a social-based platform to make connections. The site shares advertising revenue with the writers. It's based on views and interactions and number of posts.

The good parts are: There are no grammar police. You won't be docked if you don't get a comma in the right place. You can write and connect as much or little as you want. You can write about what you want to.

The bad parts are: With those loose rules, there is a lot of really bad writing. But it can be ignored. If you want to do well monetarily you will need to connect with others and follow their posts- read "spend time."

Some people are using it sort of like a blog platform. Others are writing product reviews, news items, or general articles.

You can cash out at $25. Some people are making $25 a day. That would be a living wage for me. I'm not there (yet?), and I don't think I could manage being that social. But I am making a dollar a day by posting one article a day.

If you'd like to try it out, sign up through me at my Bubblews referral link. It earns me a few cents and doesn't obligate you for anything.

One can never be sure how stable these online writing sites are, but some people have cashed out over $1000 dollars. I'm liking that!

Lots of Writing, Little Inspiration

 
I wrote my monthly column for the Ludington Daily News this morning. It wasn't brilliant- pretty much a straightforward account of my recent hike.

I've written a whole lot of content articles for Textbroker and have about half the money I need to attend Blood and Tea.

Now, I'm trying to work on Chapter 4 of "Bury the Hatchet..." No inspiration. Will have to settle for slogging along. OK, back to work.

Content Writing Again

 
This is a really tough way to earn money. Nevertheless, if I want to attend the Blood and Tea mystery writers conference, I have to come up with the money from somewhere other than my regular budget.

The easiest (in one sense) place for me to do this is Textbroker. The pay rate is pretty low when you consider the research time, but you know what you are going to get, and you get paid every Friday, if you have $10 or more in your account. I'm ranked at 4, so I get the next to highest rate of pay.

I used to be rated at 5, but they have VERY strict rules about comma use, which I've never been able to figure out, so I got demoted. That was a downer, but I've become philosophical.

One can choose the assignments, so you don't have to write about anything that is too far out of your range. I know a few people who really make a pile of money there. One of those people has specific expertise, and he chooses assignments that match that so he has to do very little research. That seldom happens for me.

So, I will slog along for a few weeks writing as many articles a week for them as I can tolerate to earn my registration money.

Textbroker Assignment

I haven't written for Textbroker in months. They want things too perfect for too little money. However, I just got a direct order, and since I get a slightly better price on those, I agreed to do it.

At least I hope I have an assignment. The client sent me a message about it, and I said I'd do it, but he hasn't actually put the order in the system in a way that commits me to write it and him to pay for it.

Do I trust that he really will do that, and start doing the research? I'm not interesting in spending the time on this and then have the client say he changed his mind or something stupid.

Ah, well. I guess I'd better stop griping and start working on it.

Writing for Shared Reviews

I have written two new reviews and revised one older one.

My most recent new review is about a kind of cookie that I picked up at a markdown price, but OH, it was good. Grisbi Lemon and Ginseng Cookies- Exquisite

I also wrote about a pair of Dolfino Swim Goggles- You Get What You Pay For

The revision was more complicated. The required length of a review has changed off and on over the life of the site. For a while, it was a meager 200 words. Now, any reviews that short are being flagged as "thin," and opened for revision or they may be rolled into some kind of group review/article. I am struggling with how to fix these two reviews. (Note that most people had a lot more than that to fix.) But I managed to re-do one of them. It was a review of a unique art glass suncatcher... not a good choice of item to review anyway. I turned it into an article about tips for choosing art objects as gifts for people. It's now called Giving Art and Handcrafted Art Objects as Gifts

Use this link if you would like to sign up at Shared Reviews. There is a whole new structure and format coming to the site on Sept 1.

I Make Publisher-Editor at Shared Reviews

I knew I was getting close, but I awoke to find this posted on the Shared Reviews blog this morning:

Joan Young has just earned the first Publishing Editor badge on SharedReviews. The bar was set high, and through the difficulties we’ve had over the last few months, an amazing feat. She has proven herself as our TOP author in the system based on the criteria of effort, perseverance, and achievement.

Congratulations Joan, everyone here at the company is very proud of you, and we hope you enjoy this moment for the amazing feat that it represents! We’re going to award you a special prize of $50 for this great achievement.

This is partly due to persistence, striving to make top levels during any phase of growth that the web site has experienced. Yes, I can write decent reviews, and now articles since general content has been added, but like any writing site, one needs a body of work to do well. I've tried to keep adding content regularly. Some months I mangage to write more than others.

Shared Reviews has gone through several phases in an effort to remain viable and serve its authors. They are currently working toward a complete overhaul of the site. All regular authors are waiting rather impatiently and some are choosing to participate less until these changes are made. I'm looking forward to the "new" site, whenever it is complete.

Owner, Peter Ejtel, admits that he didn't expect anyone to reach this level so "soon." The current levels of accomplishment were unveiled last September. Those of us who had been there a long time and had completed a certain number of tasks were set at levels which matched with those achievements. At that time I began as a Publisher-Rater, level 1. So I had to build to level 10, completing more challenges along the way.

In the end, the thing which I needed was more high ratings of my own writing, and the author has no control over when these will happen. But last night, someone gave me the final push I needed to go over the top.

Now, in addition to earning money from readers, I will have some administrative rights and responsibilities, and will earn $25 residual income a month in addition to earnings from readers. It's been a lot of work, but I think it's worth it!

Use this link if you would like to join Shared Reviews.

Product Review at Shared Reviews

Wrote up one more review for Shared Reviews. This brings my content count there to 558, and I'm solidly in first place for now!

This time I reviewed the Digital Concepts 51-in-1 Card Reader

Product Review at Shared Reviews

Today was a very busy day, but I managed to get one more review done for Shared Reviews, and it put me back into first place.

I reviewed the toddler book No T. Rex in the Library.

I don't anticipate having any time to write tomorrow. It's National Trails Day!

A New Month at Shared Reviews

I hope to step up my participation at Shared Reviews again this month. I'm back up to #2 in rank.

I wrote a new review today: Altec Lansing Speakers- Powerful but Awkward to Move

Product Review at Shared Reviews

I've really fallen off in my participation at Shared Reviews. Nevertheless, I worked my way back up to third place (heavily weighted to favor those with new content). I've been dragging my feet because they are working on a makeover for the mechanics of the site, and until that is complete there are no higher levels for me to attain. (It looks like there are, but the architecture to support them isn't in place.) That affects my motivation.

Even so, I got my act together and wrote a new product review this morning for Purina Active Senior 7+ Dog Chow.

And I see that addition has moved me into second! Things are looking up.

Shared Reviews

Articles at Shared Reviews

I moved one more article today to Shared Reviews from AC, and also finished writing and posting one brand new article.

Ever since the most recent changes to Shared Reviews, until April, I was in the number one spot. But I let things slip during that month. Since the rankings are heavily weighted toward adding content I fell way down because I didn't write more than a couple of items.

But now I'm back up to third! Today I added When My Mnemonic Device Failed Me, and Tips for Using All My Books Home Library Software, a follow-up to my review of the software.

Shared Reviews

Articles at Shared Reviews

I wasn't very active at Shared Reviews in April, for the first month in a long time. I worked really hard there in March and got a bit burned out.

Since Yahoo bought Associated Content, and Google has made serious changes to showing search results from "content farms," the amount I've been making from that source has been negligible. I posted quite a few articles on AC for page views only, which means that I have the right to remove them. I'm doing just that and moving them over to Shared Reviews.

So far this month, I've moved:
Reduce the Chances of Losing Food to Animals While Camping
Red Tamarillo- Fruit, but Not So Fruity
Fleas on Your Dog- Facts and Control

Shared Reviews requires unique content, so I can't put them both places. I think, in the long run that SR is the better place for me to earn.

Review of All My Books Software

One of the types of writing I do is content for Shared Reviews. They accept product reviews and also articles of almost any type. I've been writing for them for over two years, and am happier with them than any other online content site. I've got enough content, and high enough rank, that I'm making over $50 a month there.

Today, I added a review of software that will help you catalog your home library. It would also work for any small organization that wanted to track a small library of materials.

You can see my review at Use All My Books to Catalog a Home Library with Ease

Use this link to be a writer for Shared Reviews