Pragma Systems

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A New Year, New Plans

I hear so much about New Year's resolutions, I have to wonder how many people will keep theirs. I don't know that I've ever kept mine. So, instead of New Year's resolutions, I'm making New Year's plans.

Plan 1- Get less distracted during the day. I plan to work my set hours without allowing anything around me, or online, to distract me from getting my work done. Part of this plan is to spend less time at writer's forums. Those suckers can seriously suck time.

Plan 2- Get more residual income. With more residual income coming in, I'd have more time for writing fiction and sending book queries. I've been tinkering with a few sites that pay residuals, and have a good foundation built to have more coming in. I don't think anyone gets rich from it, but I'd like to buy some personal writing time.

Plan 3- Start writing for magazines. I've never queried a magazine before. Ever. I've had articles in five newspapers, a medical journal, newsletters and all over the freaking web- but no magazines. Most magazines pay better than web work, but there's not as much of it. It also takes forever to be paid. So, I don't want a career of it, but I'd like to start querying and see where it leads.

Plan 4- Read more classics. It's important to look away from web writing regularly and be reminded of what writing is really about. Web writing pays the bills, making it easy to forget for awhile how far it is from what I really want to do. Writing isn't really about the per word price, who gets signed with which company or what niches you're carving out. It's about creating the best work you can and hoping that it has lasting value.

Plan 5- Ignore more advice. Most of the advice I get leads nowhere. I'm not sure why I still listen to it.

How Important are Status Reports?

I had a comment from a client recently that I hadn't sent any status reports during the course of a project. I don't usually send them for small projects because I just don't feel they're necessary. If you are dealing with a brand new web writer or one who isn't used to meeting deadlines, etc., I can understand asking for status reports just to make sure they are actually doing the work. But, from a professional with nothing but good feedback from countless clients, what's the point?

The only time I send status reports is when it's a large project or when the deadline is long or indistinct. For very large projects, a quick report is warranted to reassure the customer. For long or vague deadlines, I like to send one to tell them exactly when it will be finished. If it's a project consisting of five or 10 articles, um, no. I have my deadline. I have my instructions. I will write the articles and turn them in when it's time. There's no need for hand holding on either of our parts. I'd like to know if anyone else feels like they have to send constant, pointless updates for small projects.

Writing and Solitude

Writing is such a solitary endeavor that it's no wonder the greats were a little freaky. Shelley, Wilde, Poe- all of my guys were a little off kilter. The intense solitude of a long writing session can sometimes make you see how easy it would be to slip into a life like that, full of weird, broken relationships and possibly a storm-tossed sailboat that was foolishly taken too far out to sea. Ah, Shelley. Where are the Shelleys today? I get so sick of SEO sometimes, wanting to stretch out and try something, anything that could possibly evoke the feeling of the Telltale Heart or a Yeats poem. Instead, I write about colon cleansing. Such is life.

Shopping Cart Software

I’ve been looking around at various online shopping carts and ecommerce software for my PLR site. There are several that require a level of programming that I simply don’t have. But, for non-programmers, there are easier ways to get a shopping cart set up. ecommerce software is a big shopping cart software company, and the services they offer look pretty helpful for small-time sellers as well as bigger companies.

They have SEO shopping carts, which I have never heard of and still don’t understand. But, I suppose I don’t have to. They take care of stuff like that. They also have a free trial right now and a few other special offers. There’s a free site design right now, which I could use for all of my hideously plain sites. I actually consulted with a web designer and hired him to do some work to de-ugly my sites. But, he never showed up to do the actual work. Instead, he got a job working on a new B-movie called “Chainsaw Cheerleaders.” Seriously. But, I’m betting that the Ashop Commerce guys will be there for anyone who needs serious shopping cart software.

An Important Lesson in Pricing

I ghostwrite a blog on a subject that I am very familiar with- one that is enjoyable and takes minimal research. I saw a posting on a freelancing site recently for blog ghostwriters to write about a very similar topic. Great! I inquired and was told that the rate was half the minimum rate that I charge for blog posts. But, there were no commissions and I could do the posts easily and at the same time as my ghostwritten blog. Fabulous. I accepted.

A few days later I was hanging around RentACoder looking at stuff, and there was a posting there for someone to write blog posts about the same topic. I applied, at my usual rate for posts, and was accepted. The buyer then told me that she'd had a couple of other bloggers that had agree to write the posts for half that amount, and that if we continued after the project ended, that would be the price. Weird, but ok. I now had three blog projects that were on the same topic. What could be better?

I then got the information for the RAC project. If you haven't put this together already, and I hadn't, the two projects were for the same site. That's right- I actually underbid MYSELF. I was one of their first bloggers for the off-RAC project and apparently helped set the price point that the site was now looking for. Yes, I am an idiot.

Six Hours and 15 Minutes

They were a little slow today, but to fair it was a Friday afternoon when I posted. It's late evening now, so I think it's safe to say that they have more than one employee doing this. There's where your fees are going, folks.