Since I didn’t write about it here on NJFM I feel I need to talk about it now.

Writing and Rain

If you are a freelance writer, it will rain on you. You will have days or even seasons of rain. We were all rained upon when Panda reigned upon us (sorry, I couldn’t resist). And just when the sky started to clear up, we had to weather yet another rainstorm (Panda 2.5).

There are large rainstorms like Panda and small individual rain showers. I’ll consider the Google AdSense glitch  an individual rain shower. It only affected a small number of their publishers. I happen to be one of the fortunate ones to enjoy just a bit more of their rain/reign.

Preparing for a Rainy Day

I’ve mentioned before here on NJFM that I write not only because I enjoy it, but also because I need the money. Not to drag up old history, but we created a financial situation where earning money is not an option. It’s a must.

Even though our financial situation was less than optimal and more times than not we had more month than money, we learned to squirrel a little away for a rainy day. We realized that a large part of our financial mismanagement was due to the lack of planning. We didn’t want to fall into that trap again.

If you don’t have enough money each month to pay all of your bills, will it make a huge difference in your monthly economic situation if you put a small portion of what you earn into a savings account? Let’s say you earn $500 a month and your monthly bills are $600 a month. You’re operating at a deficit. You’re taking from Peter to pay Paul until both of them have empty pockets.

Would it make a big difference if you took $10 and put it away each month? Instead of having a $100 shortfall, you now have $110. While you continue your efforts to increase your income to meet your bills, you faithfully put $10 a month away. Eventually, you’ll become so accustomed to savings that you won’t even miss the $10.

If you’re faithful, your rainy day fund will grow. Never touch it unless there is a bona fide need (no, buying a new iPod is not a bona fide need). Because we adapted this philosophy quite some time ago, we are able to weather the recent Google AdSense rain shower.

Remaining Calm During the Storm

My daughter, upon hearing of the glitch and seeing the amount of money held in limbo, was incensed. She shouted the teenaged battle cry, “That’s not fair!”

I agreed that it wasn’t fair. I also explained there was very little I could do to straighten the situation out.

She then went on and on about the fact that it’s November and Thanksgiving is around the corner and a host of other inconveniences that could occur. I stopped her before she got herself too worked up.

I explained that although there was nothing I could do about the Google situation, she could rest assured that I’m insulating myself so that if this happens next year in November, we would barely notice it (I wasn’t worried because our rainy day fund could handle this particular shower).

Since I truly had her attention, I was able to share with her an overview of some of my brainstorming ideas. It calmed her to know that I was thinking proactively. She caught a glimpse of the future and liked it.

Just Do It

Even if you start your rainy day fund by putting pennies away each month, establish the habit. Rainy days are a part of freelance writing, so start preparing for them.

Just a side note: On the Google AdSense forum in which affected AdSense publishers were sharing horror stories of how the glitch is affecting them, I couldn’t help but feel their pain.

There are some publishers that rely on their AdSense earnings to pay their mortgage (as do I). Unfortunately, when the AdSense check didn’t show up, many of them didn’t have a backup plan. In other words, they couldn’t make this month’s mortgage payment. You don’t want that to happen to you. Start your fund today.

I’m thankful for our  gym membership (nice hot showers) and Bad Ass Coffee  shop (yes, that’s the name of the coffee shop). Not only do they have great coffee but they have a comfortable couch for me to sink into as I sit with my netbook and portable keyboard to reconnect with the outer world (The reggae music here aint so bad either).

When my power company sees fit to restore my power, things will get back to normal. In the meanwhile, we are operating in survival mode.

High Tech and Low Cost

I went to the local craft store and bought a 100-sheet pad of large paper. The paper is 18″ x 24″. When I brainstorm I go through lots of paper.

I also bought a couple of sets of multicolored markers. They’re really supposed to be used on the white board but I’ve long since abandoned the whiteboard when brainstorming because I can only fit so much on a whiteboard. When you brainstorm, your writing space must not be limited.

The Pace Factor

True brainstorming requires excessive pacing. I pace around quite a bit, talk to myself and allow the brain to flow. Because of the pacing, I find it useful to tape a sheet of large paper every wooden door in the house. I choose doors because I don’t want to ruin the paint or wallpaper when I pull the tape down.

The color pens scattered throughout the house (and I also keep a few in my pocket or behind my ear if I’m wearing sweats). You always want to be prepared to jot something down when the idea hits.

Once a sheet of paper is filled I take it down and put up another one. At the end of my brainstorming session I take all the sheets of paper and I lay them out. The next step is organizing them and then typing them up on a smaller more manageable piece of paper.

Get the Kids Involved

My kids are older and they’re used to me having brainstorming sessions. If you have young children and wish to get them involved, tape sheets of paper on the lower part of the doors for them (or you can assign designated doors).

Make sure to set the brainstorming boundaries. Walls, floors, doors or anything else that doesn’t have a sheet of brainstorming paper is off limits. As you buzz around jotting ideas, your child can buzz around the house and brainstorm too.

Having your children join in a brainstorming session helps them to think out-of-the-box and come up with ideas that they might not have come up with using the traditional sit down and think it out method.

I find brainstorming to be a time of high energy. It’s a time of a lot of pacing, talking, thinking, jotting, drawing and charting. I’ve come up with some of my best ideas during brainstorming sessions. These sessions should be fun.

Take Action

At the end of the brainstorming session, sort out the ideas determine which ideas make the most sense and then take action. Brainstorming is great, but what use are great ideas if there’s no action behind them. Capitalize on your brainstorming energy and put something in motion.

Wait a minute. Let me ask you this. When was the last time you had a talk to yourself, pace around the house, let the world think your crazy brain storming session?  If you haven’t had one in a while, don’t you think it’s time? That Panda will be back. Don’t you want to be prepared the next time it shows up?

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Chronicling my steps helps me in the long run because as my new direction leads to success (or failure), I can always look back to see which steps led me to my final outcome. There’s a 50/50 chance that I might want to wash, rinse and repeat my steps. It helps when the steps are written down.

Catalyst for Change

I knew back in March when eHow closed its WCP and Panda first slammed the Internet that I had to come up with an alternative way of making money online. I did a lot of brainstorming back then and came up with a few ideas. Some of them were hand-in-glove fits with my personality and others were not.

I typed up an extensive list of ideas, filed them away, got lazy and enjoyed the summer. Now that were at the end of the year and I’m finding myself a little bored with the same old same old, I believe the time is right for me to revisit my list and make some changes.

Before I make any changes however, I have some housecleaning to do. I don’t like leaving things in a state of disarray. Disarray and clutter drains the freelance writer’s energy and flow. At my age I need as much energy and flow as I can muster. Therefore, before I can move forward I’ve got to tie up quite a few loose ends.

Establishing a Starting Point

Here is where I am. I have 24 different online properties in various stages of success. Before moving onto Phase II, I have to bring Phase I to a close. Closing Phase I doesn’t mean abandoning and discontinuing my blogs, it means consolidating and weeding them. Basically, I’m pruning them to make them more manageable.

You see, as I move to the next phase, my Phase I properties must become as close to self sufficient as possible. As I spend time learning, growing and making mistakes in my second phase, I won’t have time to put out fires, coax or coddle my Phase I endeavors. It’s time for Phase I properties to put on their big girl pants.

The Weeding Process

Of my 24 blogs, 3 are non-moneymakers and require little to no maintenance. That means my online time is spent working on  21 properties. Of the 21, 6 are being absorbed and rolled into older existing properties leaving me with 15 sites.

Out of the 15 sites, 7 run the risk of being discontinued. I’ll make a decision about those 7 properties after I’m through consolidating and maximizing the first 6. I don’t want to hurt my brain by making too many decisions at one time, although my gut is telling me that most of those 7 properties will soon bite the dust.

And so consolidating and maximizing journey begins…

Shortly after taking on line writing seriously one of my early dreams was to become self sufficient. In other words I wanted the majority, if not all of my income to come from my own sites. A former co-worker of mine planted the seed many years ago when he told me about a woman who earned $50,000 a year working from home. Her income source was her website.

He told me that story way before AdSense was around and before I really understood what this Internet thing was. The ads back then were from a company called Double Click. He knew because he worked for Double Click. Now Double Click is doubleclick and owned by Google.

That very same co-worker is the one who took me under his wing and taught me that the internet was nothing to be afraid of and explained the basics of HTML. Once he planted the seed and cultivated it a little, I took off running and haven’t looked back.

Love of Learning

I wouldn’t be doing this stuff if I didn’t absolutely love it. Because I enjoy it so much, I was eager to learn as much as I could about writing and creating online. I learned about content sites, blogs, SEO, search engines, RSS feeds, HTML, CSS, jpg, png, java and more. Early on I spent quite a lot of time on a site called Web Monkey. Web Monkey has changed quite a bit from the old days, but back in the day they had a host of free online tutorials. I think I took every single one of them.

I went to the library to read books but realized the books on my favorite subject matter were out of date. I then spent hours in Barnes & Noble with the latest releases only to jot down URLs from the reference pages to later look them up on the internet.

Creating new websites from scratch was just as much fun as dining at my favorite restaurant. When my family slept, I used to create, learn, experiment and confer with my mentor. My mentor finally admitted that the student had surpassed the teacher.

Love, Time and Money

During my time of learning and experimenting, I “discovered” AdSense. I placed it on one of my sites back in April of 2006. You guys know the 63 cent story so I won’t repeat it here. Just think, I earned money doing something that I truly enjoyed. I had to read the terms of service to see if there was a catch. There was no way on God’s green earth that earning money should be so simple.

Over time as I continued to learn and hone my online writing skills I became more and more comfortable online. It was the one place where I could allow my imagination to run wild and continue to earn money.

To this day, I still continue to experiment and create new sites. Why? Well, because I love doing this stuff and I find that over time it pays well. When I write online, I don’t have to worry about hitting the glass ceiling or playing office politics. I can work when I want, where I want and write what I want.

It took 4 ½ years (and 500 posts), but I think I can finally redefine myself. Instead of calling myself an online freelance writer (since I rarely write for anyone else), I think I’ve graduated to full-time blogger and part-time author. 500 posts from now (and who knows maybe another 4 ½ years) I’d love to be known as “Felicia A. Williams,  well-known author and part-time blogger.”

The great thing about this online writing stuff is that no one can stop me from making it happen but me.

Where do you see yourself 4 ½ (and 500 posts) from now?

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