Just when I bowed to update my blogs a little bit more often, something happened that did NOT allow me to keep my bow. So from now on, no more talks of updating my blogs more often.

But you’ll probably want to know what took me away from my blogs for two months so this post is just going to be about that. Why didn’t I blog?

Answer: My husband got sick. And while that is not the only reason, it is where all the other reasons rooted. Before my abrupt disappearance from the blogging world, I was really very motivated to work on my blogs—to redesign them, update them more often, accept more opps, etc. At that time, I felt like my blogging will dramatically incline. Unfortunately though, my husband got sick and I had to take care of him. For two months he was at home and the first few weeks were really horrible. It took him that long to recover because his sickness was not the kind that heals after a few days. It was nothing serious because he did not have to be admitted in the hospital but it was serious enough to turn our life around for a brief period of time. He was too weak to do anything. Fatigue, night sweats, chills, muscle pains, etc… His sickness was keeping us both wide-awake at night. I was, of course, expected to do everything—cook, clean, look after him, do the grocery, etc. And while I am not complaining… I tell you, it was difficult. I had a very ill husband and a 3-month-old baby to take care of. I was not sleeping well even though I felt overly exhausted at the end of each day. I was very stressed. Usually, I don’t cook everyday because hubby eats a big lunch at work so when he comes home, he’s not that hungry and would only request a salad or a small snack. But when he was home, I had to cook every single day and that means I also had to do the grocery more often.

I was really stressed.

I got sometime for myself..or rather, I was able to steal sometime for myself from no other than myself. Do you understand what I mean? Say, I still have 3 hours to sleep before my son wakes up… but because I want to sit for a while, relax a bit, and maybe read a blog I follow or check my FB, I stay up for an hour. I stole an hour away from my sleeping time.

It was really a stressful period for me.

I could have also stolen some time to blog BUT I didn’t. Why? Because.

There were times when I was assigned opps. Decent ones. The kind I’ll agree to do in a heartbeat. I accepted all of them BUT I was not able to do any of them because I can’t focus—hubby needs something, baby is awake, no more milk in the fridge, it’s almost time for lunch, etc. In short, there was always a reason why I was NOT able to sit and write. And when I finally do, the opps are expired.

So even tough I could write a non-opp blog entry, I didn’t because I sort of lost my enthusiasm to blog. This happened to me a few times only but enough for me to feel that I lost my blogging mojo. Yeah, that was it—I lost my blogging mojo. At some point, I just didn’t like to blog anymore. I still like blogs, infact.. during my stolen times, I read blogs but at some point, I just didn’t have the inclination to blog anymore.

***

Above post was written last night. I am publishing it today because I got interrupted. Anyway, today I learned from the tweet of my blogger friend, Sterndal, that google just updated its pageranks. WTF!?! I am so annoyed. Why does it have to happen when I don’t have any update for two months.

I have a lot of writing tasks piled up, which is a bit overwhelming considering that it happened from one day to another. And it’s weird how I am now trying to avoid these tasks when I have waited for them for weeks! Funny how fickle I’m acting right now, but today is just one of those days when it’s much easier for me to sit on the couch and write blog entries than to step in my office and do some real work.

I have six articles with 400-600words each to write—that’s 2,440-3,600 words I have to write until Friday. And it’s not just that, I have to research about the topics too. Considering that it is for a new employer I must impress, I should be getting deep into it, but instead I am mucking about the internet and playing with my MACbook.

Speaking of my MAC, I really love it and if I would go a month back in the past, I would buy it again. It’s definitely worth its price not only because it is 1000000 (to the 1 millionth power) cooler than Windows but also because of the very unique user experience it offers. Call me shallow, but the fact that I have a notebook view on Word is something that makes me feel like I am just really doing some random writing for fun.  The font, which is, by the way, very similar to my handwriting , adds more to that effect.

There are more things I can do with my MAC (and I would probably write about them every now and then), that is why I’m considering the 1,230 Euros well spent. It took me a long time to finally get one for myself but I am glad I came to that decision. Had I known earlier how cool it is, I would have had bought it earlier too and would have not let my practicality (i.e.; stinginess) cause the delay.

It’s another week and it’s again time to reflect on what the previous week has brought me as a stay-at-home freelance web content provider. I got tons of tasks last week but I didn’t earn much because most of the tasks are from the job that only pays 3$/hr but for the first time in this month, I am not complaining that I didn’t earn much.

Reason to this is because I enjoyed the tasks given to me specially the logo design task. Last week, I designed two logos and my employer accepts both. Cool! Once the logos are up, I will probably link to the sites just to show you the logos (hehe). I’m really proud of them, as they are the first logos I did professionally. I hope that I will get more designing task that are better paid.

Anyway, here my Odesk earnings last week.

And since it’s the end of the month, I made a computation of how much I really earned this January from all my freelancing ventures. The total is $406.46 and that is still very far from my monthly target of $1K but I am not giving up. My biggest money makers are Odesk and TLA and I will see if these two could bring me more next month and if not, I will look around for other sites to earn money from.

In other news, I decided to keep this blog sponsored-post free. It was difficult for me to decline the 13.50$ for 300words opp but I really don’t like to use this blog for sponsored posts.

It’s difficult to mix work and holiday together so I didn’t even try. And the good thing was that, my employers at Odesk didn’t give me tasks to do during the Christmas week. So from the 20^th to the 26^th of December, I didn’t really work except for an hour and that is only for finishing one last entry before I shut down work to enjoy Christmas.

I did have a merry Christmas and I hope that you all did too. My Christmas was nothing glamorous. It was simple and solemn but nonetheless, happy in its own way. I spent it with my husband and my in-laws.  The whole day was filled with eating activities (hehe) and videoke showdown. In the evening, we shared what my mother-in-law prepared for our special Christmas dinner—it was really good. Then after that, we opened our gifts!  I got some really nice and thoughtful gifts like baby books, yoga mat, preggy pillow, chocolates (plenty of them), some kitchen stuff, and  €€€ (hehe).  After that, we hang out a bit longer to share drinks and play some games.

And because of Christmas I only earned 8$ from Odesk.

By the way, the other employer who was paying me 10$/hr, the one I mentioned in my last post, is no longer my employer. She dropped me right before the Christmas week because she postponed the launching of the site and therefore, does not need my immediate services anymore. She said she’ll contact me in the future. I honestly think that I am just too expensive for the kind of work she would like me to do though. I mean, I believe that when I think, I work. So when she asked me about my opinion on this and that, I logged them as work hours and that didn’t make her happy. She wants free ideas and input from me and that’s simply a no-no for me.

In other news, my other employer gave me a task this week and he said that he’ll be giving me more next week so I’ll be working for him like 12-15hrs/week starting next week. That will be around 90-105$/week and I am so happy about that.  I am quite happy with this employer. He is fair and very professional. I hope to get another employer like him so I can complete a 250$/week target. That’s ambitious (hehe) but there’s no harm in ambitioning (my first time to use this word).

In yet another news, I am thinking of changing all my blog themes to the new Thesis Theme. I know it looks boring but I think it will help my blogs rank better since I know too little about SEO. I am hoping Thesis Theme will do the SEO part for me. I will just have to try and personalized it a bit so even if it looks plain, I can still add my personal touch to it.

One last news, I think I will own a MAC soon (big smile). With all the Christmas money I got plus a little saving from me and some help from my husband, I could perhaps get one Apple laptop by the end of January 2011. I am not 100% sure yet but I am crossing my fingers.  I hope, I hope, I hope…. =))

Today, I’ve written 11 blog entries (including this one) and 10 of which is now publish on my new blog. Yep, I created another blog! I won’t link to it from this blog because I used my real name in that blog. I know it’s confusing but I really would like to use my real name more and more this time and because of this, I want to separate the blogs wherein I use my real name from the blogs wherein I use Vienna Lopez.

I will still definitely keep this blog and I plan to use this blog to report about my freelance writing and to start with that, I mentioned last time that I got two jobs at Odesk. One of which pays 7$/hr and the other one pays 10$/hr. After less than a week of working on the jobs, I can honestly tell that I like the one that pays 7$/hr better. It’s an editing job and I really feel that the rate is fair if I based it on the task I get.

The 10$/hr job is different. The Buyer sort of wants me to work for free. I mean, she asks me about my opinions on some things and when I log in time for brainstorming, jotting down my ideas, and answering her long emails, she complains. She said it’s not part of the task. So I sort of feel cheated. I don’t have much hope for this job. The Buyer is a really difficult person so I won’t be surprise if she’ll leave me a really awful feedback.

In other news, here’s my earning from Odesk last week.

I don’t suppose I’ll earn more than that this week because it’s Christmas so everything will be slowing down but I hope that the new year will bring better paying jobs and more professional buyers.

This is a period.

Sorry for my crappy first sentence but I need a first sentence and I right now, I am having a hard time writing one.

They say, the first sentence is always the most difficult to write but I say, I never really had trouble writing the first sentence up till now and that because I have no practice.

Three months! Wow, that’s a really long time. I didn’t write a single sentence on this blog for three long months. But that’s over now, thanks God.

I left my day job and here’s they explanation why I finally came to this decision.

I got sick several times in the last few months. I blame it on the cold temperatures and on my weakened immune system. This made me unreliable work wise. You see, if you are a teacher, there are pupils and parents who are waiting for you to show up but before you judge me of being so irresponsible and unprofessional, read along.

In all those times that I was sick, I did informed my head teacher beforehand that I can’t go to work. I always informed her early enough but the problem was—she was not always able to find a teacher who’s able to take over my classes and because of this, she’s forced to cancel my classes. The parents, of course, are not so happy about that.

I have discussed the issues I have with my job several times across all my blogs and if you’ve been following my blogs, you’ll know that my work benefits doesn’t include getting paid sick leaves. To cut the story short, I wasn’t 100% happy with my job to start with and then boom! The third time I got sick, it struck me—I was sort of forced to work even if I am not yet 100% feeling well and that’s because there’s not enough teachers. That’s the main reason why I keep getting sick.

So it came to me—why would I sacrifice so much for a job that doesn’t really give back what I deserve?

I quit and decided to go back to writing.

I will probably earn less but I will probably be happier. I say “probably” because well, things could be different from what I imagine now. I am keeping my fingers crossed though.

I hope that quitting my job is not a mistake and that going back to writing will be a success. I am not wishing of earning lots and lots of money from writing but a decent income of say… at least 1000$ every month would be really nice.

I hope that going back to blogging and freelance writing will work out for me.

I read your blog not because of your impressive writing abilities. Whether you believe it or not, I am a silent follower of this blog and that is not to say that the blogger can’t write well because based on her background, I think she’s doing great with her writing. If you don’t focus on the strict grammar rules of the English language, you might also enjoy reading her entries.

I read your blog not because you’re famous. I follow Heather Armstrong. She’s famous and she writes really well but that is not the reason why I read her blog. Believe it or not, most of the bloggers I follow are small time bloggers who cater to very few audiences.

I follow your blog not because I learn from it. I actually hate super pretentious blogs that tell you what to do. Google leads me to those kinds of blogs whenever I need info but the chance that I will return to those blogs is always almost zero.

I read your blog because you share something about your life and your thoughts with honesty. I read your blog because I get the feeling that we have something in common. I read your blog because we have the same opinions on some things. I read your blog because I like your humor. I read your blog because I can sympathize with your sorrows. I read your blog because it’s entertaining.

I, myself, don’t have a writing prowess to boast about but I have an idea why a few readers read what I write because it is also the very reason why I read somebody else’s blog.

I read your blog because I know that behind that blog is a “real” person.

Ever since I learned about the world of blogging, I always wished to have my articles published on real online magazines (would also be super great if I get my work published on print). Of course, I have some written works available online but they are all self-published.

I’ve spent years contemplating on submitting my articles to online magazines but I never got the courage to do so. I always thought, who would want to publish the kind of writing I do? I mean, no fancy words, no long sentences, no impressive idioms, etc. It’s like anybody who completed first grade can write the way I do.

But because this deep conviction to bring my blogging to the next level can’t be suppressed anymore, I signed up for ODESK and looked for some writing gigs. I have to tell you that I wasn’t so impressed at first because some buyers offer really cheap compensation (I mean REALLY cheap). That’s disheartening but I told myself that if I really want to do this, I must not concentrate on what I will earn. I should concentrate on getting jobs and starting my portfolio as a freelance writer.

So I started applying for jobs. I sent out nine applications and from these applications I got one rejection and three interviews. And from these three interviews, I got one job and I refused the other two jobs because the job I accepted requires 16 hours per week and that’s already more than I can commit to my writing. I want to be able to do quality jobs and since I am just starting and learning the ropes of freelance writing, I avoided quantity (As you know, I don’t enjoy pressure).

I rescinded my application for the other six jobs I applied for. I didn’t wait for buyer’s response anymore because I already accepted an earlier job offer.

Now, I want to talk about the job I got.

When I got a notification from ODESK that I am invited for an interview, I was ecstatic and of course, nervous. In my mind, I immediately reviewed possible questions that might be thrown at me and the corresponding answers.  To my surprise, all I got was this:

Hi Vienna,

Thanks for applying. Do you have any blogs or writing samples that I can take a look at? It would be really helpful.

Thanks! S

So I directed her to this blog while thinking… oops, I should have updated my blog and written a better post.  I was sure I won’t get this job but I was surprised to see her reply:

Hi Vienna,
I took a look at your blog and I love it! I like your writing style, its reflective and gives the glimpse into your personal thoughts through your writing. I also really enjoy that you write casually and not forced (some people write like they have to prove something!) and that you also include photos with your entries.

I think you’re a good match! You can write about anything under the sun that is Wine, Food & Travel related. You can stretch the topic since it doesn’t have to be literal and can be interpreted in so many different ways. For food, you can write about your own herb/vegetable garden. For travel, you can write about past experiences, going to some place in town, or dreams of future vacations. For wine, heck – whatever floats your boat.

You can combine the topics or write them individually. Again, its completely up to you. There are no rules! You’re hired.

I’ll set you up with an account on the website, which is WordPress based. You can post the articles, I’ll review and publish them when ready. Just as a note, all articles also need to have a companion photo, which is located on the right hand side of the article page. This image will also be used as the thumbnail image on the homepage and throughout the site. You can also add multiple images in the body of your writing, just like you do in your blog.

Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll also need some time to set up your account… in the meanwhile, welcome to the team and I look forward to your writing

Cheers, S

Look at that! Somebody likes my candid way of writing. I was all smiles when I finished reading this message. I am really happy that one of my many dreams is about to come true.

I won’t tell you where my articles will be published yet. I’ll have to wait until at least one of my articles goes live.    c”)

There’s a lot of revamping going on in my blogs lately and I am not done yet. I started with merging some of my blogs and changing the themes. Not only did this blog got a new theme but my other blog, Bizarre Marriage, is also running on a new theme since last week. The next few weeks will bring more merging. My target is to have less than five blogs and at the moment I still have like seven or so.

The reason why I am doing this is because I want to be able to manage all of my blogs well and with the day job coming this September, I’ll definitely have lesser time for blogging so I thought that it is better to keep fewer blogs but manage them well than to keep all my blogs and leave most them unattended.

So anyway, I like my old theme and it worked well for me but I’ve been using it for a long time so I thought of using a new one for a change.

I think my new theme is great! ElegantThemes.com has some really handsome themes and I particularly like this one because of it looks clean. The photos, if you noticed, are not related to the blog posts but for aesthetics’ sake, I placed one photo on each post. This theme looks way better with the photos and in the future I will try to put photos that are related to my blog posts. There’s one thing though… and I would do it if I could but I my PHP knowledge is very limited. It is actually not even enough to place the “recent comments” and “random articles” on the bottom of the page instead of displaying them on top.

And then there’s also the reminder from Sterndal that since I merge some of my blogs, I also have to fix some links. She’s right but I’m not sure if I would like to go through all that hassles. This blog alone has almost a hundred posts and I after putting photos on each of them, I don’t like to imagine going through each post to check if the links are linking to deleted blogs. But maybe I’ll do it someday. Who knows? It’ll definitely make my blog better.

Writing is easy but only if you simply want to put plain words together to convey what you mean and that’s what I’ve been doing since I started blogging. I read my previous entries and I am like…. hmmm…everything is just so lame…(not to mention my frequent grammar mistakes).

My writing is so plain. I myself feel bored when reading my entries. I want to and have to write better. I’ve embarrassed myself long enough in the whole World Wide Web. It’s time to stop writing and publishing crappy blog entries. It’s time to work on my writing skills.

But where do I start?