Bad timing on marketplace

Today, I recieved one of the Helium Marketplace alerts, the email for those who have written articles similiar to those currently being requested by someone in the marketplace. And I promptly said "Damn it" when I saw the deadline---this Sunday.

Talk about bad timing. There is no way I can even hack out a single astrology article before the deadline; I have finals to cope with. I still have a week to go, plus one day. At this point, I have to study for two finals, and write twenty pages for papers that function as finals (plus complete research).

And I know that I can do the type of stuff these requests are asking for; after all, I started to write astrology articles for one of the college newspapers this last semester. But there is no way that I can make the deadline for this set.

I wonder if they will have any more marketplace requests later this year. I hope so. But if nothing else, I have another marker about how much to price the astrology articles I intend to write this summer. That is something positive, isn't it?

Coming around the bend

I can so tell that I am nearing the end of the college semester. For the past couple of nights, I have insisted on turning on the television; and when not wasting time in front of the idiot box or playing games, I have found myself working on the Bast Temple website or researching the upcoming June Open Full Moon Ritual. Even mowing the lawn is preferable to doing any more homework.

I am eager to get back to regular writing, despite the fact that I am doing my best to ignore the twenty or so pages I need to hack out for classes by Tuesday (not to mention studying for two essay style finals). And I have so been resisting the urge to write a couple of Golden Dawn related articles.

It is probably hard for non-writers to understand how a writer's mind can associate writing with recreation. But we do, or at least I do.

Here to the final week and a half of the semester: may it not be too brutal.

I wished I would have wrote this

There are times, both as a college student and as a freelance writer, that I read something and say "Gee, I wished that I would have wrote that; it is so much better than what I wrote." Today, over at Helium, I had one of those moments.

The other day, I wrote a review of a gaming suppliment that I had stumbled over: The Book of Erotic Fantasy. I suggested the title to Helium and it was approved. It is one of those titles that you hope becomes competitive, just so you can read the comments that others are making.

And this morning, I discovered that someone else had looked at the book and commented on it: Carrie Schutrick.

I am green with envy. I really wished that my review of this gaming suppliment was as good as hers. She said everything I wanted to, and some stuff I should have.

Here is the link to her review of The Book of Erotic Fantasy. Enjoy.

Looking forward to the end of the semester

Once again, we are approaching the end of another semester, and I am so ready to have it over. As always the required writing for my classes have edged out my other writing. I don't imagine that is good for my business.

Of course, this pattern is exactly why I am more focused on "passive income" writing than "active income". This summer I am going to be hunting for a couple of more passive income writing sites; hopefully, I can find some that are not "slave labor sites" as one blogger puts it.

It is not that I have anything against Helium and Associated Content; it is just that I am hoping to locate some better places to put some of my writing. Honestly, given the tightness of the credit market I need to find better passive income sites; private student loans have dried up for me.

I will be doing an experiment and seeing how Constant Content works with some of my articles this summer. I also have the task of doing some SEO for a fellow lodge member who needs to get more traffic to one of their sites. Plus I have an Open Full Moon ritual in June to get ready for.

So I am very ready for the semester to be over and for my summer work/writing season to begin.

Plagiarism is Theft

Here is a link to a post that a fellow writer wrote about her latest adventure with someone copying her blog posts word for word: Plagiarism is Theft.

Tarot deck review link: Initiatory Tarot of the Golden Dawn

Just completed my review of the Initiatory Tarot of the Golden Dawn. Ended up giving it four and a half stars out of five.

Wow, I am good at rating

I have been slacking off on rating over at Helium this past month. I had planned on doing some rating over my spring break, but the food poisoning got in the way of that plan. I have done a couple of ratings this past week, but that is about the extent of it.

So it is not really a surprise that I dropped from 23 rates down to 8 today (thirty day total). The surprise is that with these eight I have a hundred percent for my score. It makes me wonder what I did differently with these eight than some of the preceeding ratings that I have done.

For those who are curious, my normal percentage floats between 70 and 89.

Though let's be honest, it doesn't matter. With the number of rates done over the last ninety days, being a mere 102, I must get some rates done in the near future.

But it was nice to have a perfect rating percentage for one day.