We Made An Offer...

So we visited the house we want to buy one more time. We had looked at it once before a little over a month ago, and kind of knew at that point that we were going to make an offer on it. All that was necessary was to arrange the financing. BTW, if you are in the market to buy a home, might I suggest Quicken Loans.

Anyhow, get this: when we looked at the place the first time, one of the things we liked very much was the way the staircase to the second floor curved in the landing area. Now, the reason the current owners are selling the place is because the woman has some debilitative health issues. At present, she can't walk upstairs. This is one of the major reasons they are selling the place. Nonetheless, we went into the home yesterday to find that the current owners, within the last month, had spent over $3,400 to STRAIGHTEN OUT THE STAIRCASE!! and add a chair lift.

Now, I don't quite get this. I understand she needed to get around. I also understand that, should we get the place, they will be taking the chair lift with them. But really, who does this? I mean, who puts their place on the market, and then puts several thousand dollars into 'improving' it? Sure it was most definately an improvement for them, but come on - they are gonna be moving! As far as my girlfriend and I considered, this made the house less attractive.

Outside of this change, we still rather liked the place. We figured if nothing else, we can always call the company that made the changes and have it put back the way it was. Of course, this is going to cost us several thousand dollars. Bogus. Nonetheless, we made an offer of $12,900 less than what the current asking price is. We'll see what happens. We're supposed to know something about it by Friday evening. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Geeks Are Sexy...

My most recent article has been posted over at Helium.com. It's called "6 Tips for Improving Your Blog Design", and was a fun article to write. I did quite a bit of research for the article, and came across some pretty cool links for bloggers. I have included the links below. Check them out. There is a TON of good information available for bloggers of all skill levels. Lots of inspirational stuff, too.

Here are a few of the links I liked best:

ContentRobot.com
VandelayDesign.com
ProBlogger.com
Performancing.com
BlogginBits.com
DailyBlogTips.com
ProBlogDesign.com

On the subject of cool sites for bloggers, I also decided to join FeedBurner.com, Technorati.com and Digg.com, some really cool sites for promoting blogs. If you are new to the blogging world and haven't signed up with them yet, I strongly suggest you do.

Finally, I also found one of the better websites I have ever found - GeeksAreSexy.net. Right now, they got this contest going, and I am thinking about entering for the heck of it. The goal is to write the best "How To" article. We'll see what happens. Of course, all updates will be posted here!

That's about it for now. I am off to shower and go interact with actual humans in the real world. My girlfriend and I are going to look at a house again. We have already looked at it once, but I believe we are going to put on offer in on it after we see it this time. We are planning on taking a few pics, so I will most likely post them here either tonight or tomorrow morning. In any event, wish us luck on the offer.

It Makes You Talk Funny...

I recently joined this website, Helium.com, which I have been spending quite a bit of time on lately. I joined for a couple reasons. First, I wanted to see if, in fact, I could make money from my writing by writing for another site. I have written quite a few articles for free which have been picked up by various sites and published, but the only money I have ever made has been through selling articles to print magazines. With the current blog frenzy, I decided dammit, it's my turn to make some frickin cash.

Second, I joined to keep my writing skills sharp. After all, even if I didn't make any cash, I would still be seeing my stuff in print and it would force me to keep writing and to hopefully, with each article, improve my skills. Finally, I joined Helium because it gave me the opportunity to have my work put up against that of writers from around the world and have mine rated against theirs, a kind of hot or not type of deal.

Since joining on Oct. 1, 2007, I have written several articles. As of today, Oct. 9th, I haven't made a whole heck of a lot of money (I'll get more to that in a minute), but I have been writing my ass off. And yes, I do believe my skills have improved a little. If nothing else, I have been driving my girlfriend crazy with all the blogspeak and telling her about every little advance my articles make.

On to the money part. The way Helium works is like this: I post an article. That article gets read by millions of adoring fans from around the world. Hopefully something I write makes them want to click the Google ads on the side of the article. Helium.com gets cash for that click, and I get a small percentage. At the same time, my article is pitted against other articles and rated based on the content of the article. The higher my article rates, the more it is seen.

Now, here's the fun part of the rating system. In addition to getting higher ratings and being seen more often, Helium offers weekly contests in various categories. Each category has 25 topics you can write to. When you write an article in one of these categories, and it rates high, you receive points. At the end of the contest week, the writer with the most points gets 1st place, and $75. 2nd place gets $25, 3rd place receives $10 and 4th through 6th place receive $5.

During this last contest week, I wrote 5 or 6 articles in the Business category. Apparently, they were well written enough to garner 2nd place in that category's contest. Here's where it gets even better. Every week, ten or so different categories are featured, with 25 topics in each category. Being that my articles rated the way they did this first time around, I have decided to target more categories. Hopefully, my articles will become good enough to continue rating high, and I will win 1st or 2nd in several categories. At this point, all this writing becomes financially viable.

Oh, and the percentage of the Google ads clicked? I have made a whopping .07 cents thus far. Now, like I said, ultimately my goal is to keep writing and hopefully improve my skills by doing so. Any pocket change I make above that is perverbial icing on the cake. We'll see what happens. Until then, let me know what you think. Here are my articles:

A GUIDE TO DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING As of this writing, rated #1 out of 2 articles

A GUIDE TO PERSONAL INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET Currently rated #1 of 2 articles

EMPOWERING YOUR STAFF LEADS TO BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE Currently #6 of 15 articles

A STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT Currently #1 of 9 articles

COMPANY BLOGS AND THEIR VALUE FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS Currently #3 of 8 articles

TIPS FOR ORGANIZING A MEDIA EVENT Currently #2 of 5 articles

THE PROS AND CONS OF DESIGNING YOUR OWN SMALL BUSINESS WEB SITE Currently #7 of 8 articles

SHOULD LAWS BE PASSED TO LIMIT GUN OWNERSHIP FURTHER? Currently #1 of 3 articles

GETTING OVER YOURSELF: MAKING THE TRANSITION FROM THINKING TO WRITING Currently #11 of 58 articles

MANAGING DOWNTIME Currently #1 of 1 articles

As you can see, I ain't doing too bad in the whole rating game. But then, I knew I would fare well. That's why I write - because I can, and I can do it well.

As I continue down the Helium.com path, I will update you here. As always, your comments are welcome.

It's Official...

It's official. I have joined the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org). Beginning November 1st, 2007 and continuing through to November 30th, I will attempt to write about 1,700 words of a novel every day.

The ultimate goal? 50,000+ words over the 30 days. And a publishable book, or at least a rough first draft of such.

"The first draft of anything, is shit." - Ernest Hemingway

My goal now is to put together an outline of what I will be writing about. I actually have two different story lines I could go from. The first is a story I started writing last summer. I wrote out a first chapter, and never did any more. The second is a story that I started writing prior to that, with a writing partner. I haven't decided which to go with come November. Then again, I have been mulling around a new story - an historically factual piece of fiction based during the civil war. I don't know. We'll see.

I have, however, decided that I have to get myself into the habit of writing at least 1,000 words a day. No matter the subject, no matter the pain, it must be done. I have an entire month to prepare myself, mentally & physically. It can be done, I know.

My biggest challenge is turning off the internal editor. You know, the one that makes you want to stop and go back over what you just typed to edit it. An unrealistic demand for perfection. That's exactly what it is. And why not? How can I go forward knowing that what I just wrote and attached my name to is shit? But I must, and I will.

Not to mention my ongoing attempts to get published in magazines once again. I have several articles I am working on that I am going to pitch to various publications during this same period. In plain words, I am going to have my writing plate full for quite some time. I can't wait. I only hope those around me can put up with my constant hacking away at the keyboard and late night research endeavors.

1,000 Words...

1,000 words, or so that is the goal. The daily goal. I have considered myself a writer for some time now. Hell, I have even been published. Nationally. But lately I have allowed procrastination to sink in.

While I have felt the writing bug gnawing at me for a while, I instead have been looking for every reason not to write. I read. I sleep. I work. I eat. I clean. I conduct 'research'. But when it comes to the actual writing, I have yet to make the perverbial college try.

My last article was published in 2004. 3 years ago. My last PAID article, anyhow. I have written quite a few pieces since then, including miscellaneous blog posts and even a few marketing articles that were ultimately published on several websites. Nonetheless, my writing has not been of the kind that has brough it any income and, ultimately, that is why I have always wanted to be a writer.

So, here I am. I got a new blog. A clean slate, if you will. The funniest part is that yesterday, I sat down to write a post, and just stared at the screen. Today, I was determined not to do the same. Today, I would actually make my first post to this particular blog.

In addition to posting here on a regular basis, I plan on using this blog to chronicle my adventures with NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month which starts November 1st. The goal is to complete a novel within a month's time. I have had several ideas mulling around this old noggin of mine for sometime, but once again, I have yet to put pen to paper. Or fingers to keyboard. We'll see if this helps any.

As a NaNoWriMo participant, my goal will be to write at least 1,000 words, EVERY DAY, for 30 days (Nov. 1 - 30, 2007). In all reality, that should be the goal of any writer. Whether writing articles or books, 1,000 words a day is not all that much when you consider that most novels run 60,000 - 80,000 words. For non-fiction, the word count is generally smaller at 40,000 - 50,000, unless of course we are talking an academic piece.

The big contest on the NaNoWriMo site is 50,000 words, so in all reality, I will probably shoot for more like 1,700 words a day. Will I make it? Who the hell knows. I am going to try. If for no other reason, at least I will be able to feel a bit better about myself when I call myself a writer.

Thanks for stopping by. Stick around and see if I make it. Leave some comment love if you wish. If not, oh well.

Until next time...