November 2009 Just Do It Challenge - Who's In?

[Celeste Stewart]

It's been a busy few months of challenges so far this year! We've been working on everything from titles and short summaries to crafting different styles of articles and blog posts. Ideas for new challenges continue to flow in. If you're like me, you have a list of ideas that you want to eventually try. So, this month is inspired by the old Nike campaign of "just do it" as well as by a post by Media Maven stating that she has some serious word count goals for November.

So, this month, we are not going to wait for a challenge that fits with our personal personal goals, we are just going to do it. So, you want to write 1,000 words per day this month? Do it! So, you want to write a political analysis? Do it! So, you want to start including Twitter summaries at the end of each article as a bonus to clients? Do it. So, you think you need a little help with punctuation? Go buy that book you've been meaning to buy! Want to explore promoting yourself on Twitter or some other avenue? Start exploring.

So, what do you want to accomplish this month? What areas do you want to work on? With the holidays quickly approaching, try not to overestimate yourself but don't let the holidays be an excuse not to "just do it" either. Post your personal goals here and we'll all be happy to encourage, share wisdom, and maybe even try a few new things ourselves. Pick your own personal challenge or jump on board one of the challenges another writer posts but don't attempt to incorporate all ideas. Pick one and commit to it.

I'll start. This month I plan on focusing on a niche that has worked well for me in the past but I've neglected due to other commitments. I plan on writing at least one article per week for this particular niche (Twitter/Tweetables) this month. I keep putting off the articles because I have other commitments but I know if I schedule some time to just do it, these articles will get written.

Who's in?

[ScottRC]

Ah, I like this challenge, Celeste. Count me in.

My goal is to submit a minimum of 18 articles per week, with the net for each article averaging $15 or more. Since I'm a bachelor with no kids and a modest lifestyle, I could actually live on that as a minimum. Hopefully my earnings will exceed it, though!

So basically I'll have to write 3 articles a day, 6 days a week, to meet the goal. I'd better get crackin'.

[Antonia]

Great challenge, Celeste!

Ever since starting at CC, I've been hoping to make it a full-time income, but I've never sat down and figured out my hourly average, percentage of sales, how many hours I need to write per day, etc...until now. If my rough calculations are anywhere close to accurate, this will be the month it happens! I worked out how much I need to earn to afford basic living expenses + airline tickets to Australia, and based on my hourly average I should hit it if I consistently write 26 hours per week. So, that's my goal: 26 hours per week...already wrote 7 hours this week, 19 to go--today's goal is 6.5.

[nichewriter]

I wrote and submitted a medical career related article on the 1st and it sold about an hour or so ago. It's a niche I have not tried writing before. The customer contacted me this morning asking if she could see the entire article and so I put the entire article in the excerpt. She contacted me again to let me know she bought it, and expressed interest in a related article I'm working on (I mentioned this to her in my initial reply).

Anyway, what's my point? (Sorry to ramble...) With today's sale, I found my challenge for this month: write an article in a niche I have not written before -- 1 article in a new niche each week. Four articles in niches new to me should be achievable. I've got the first week down with this one, so 3 to go!

Thanks for this challenge, Celeste!

~Sherry

[eek]

I'll join in, although I feel deflated at the moment. Somehow that public request for quizzes shot right over my head, and I just learned about it in a forum post. My fault completely - I just didn't pay attention to the request when it came in. My Just Do It challenge was going to be to knuckle down and write 1,000 words per day (edited) and finish all of the work I have for clients (I'm very thankful for that) in order to take on a few public requests this month as well. Plus, my husband/editor did something really sweet by finding a free online writing course. Not that he was implying I needed to improve, it was just a result of listening to me blab on so often about my goals and wishes and regrets (never having completed college). So I'd love to make time to begin that course before Thanksgiving.

How to make it work? I'm considering rising at 4 am, since the alarm is going off anyway for dh to rise and shine. Would I accomplish anything coherent before 8? I doubt it. So I'm going for that 1,000 words/day goal at minimum, and anything beyond that is icing.
Emma

[stephanie]

My goal is to submit a minimum of 18 articles per week, with the net for each article averaging $15 or more. Since I'm a bachelor with no kids and a modest lifestyle, I could actually live on that as a minimum. Hopefully my earnings will exceed it, though!

So basically I'll have to write 3 articles a day, 6 days a week, to meet the goal. I'd better get crackin'.

That's a goal I'd like to emulate (even by half!), Scott, but more than anything else, it's lack of ideas that's my stumbling block. How do you get around that?

[Debbi]

stephanie,

What are you interested in writing about? What doyou have expertise in? What would you like to know more about? Are there any topics in the Search Terms of the Recently Sold page list that interest you? What are your friends and family talking about that might make a good article? What are you hearing, reading, or seeing at work, school, or home that others might be interested in knowing more about?

Go to a site like Demand Studio or eLance and look at their list of assignments to get some article ideas. Look at the fullrights sales list on CC's Recently Sold page. Someone was interested in those topics enough to buy the articles and those articles can never sell again. Someone else is probably interested in that topic too. Scan your newspaper, favorite news web site, or TV news show. Watch The Doctors, Dr. Phil, Oprah, 60 minutes, or 20/20 for topic ideas. Ask everyone you know what they are interested in reqding about.

There are so many ideas out there, I get overwhelmed with titles to put in my "In progress" folder. I choose the ones I am most interested in knowing more about and start researching and writing. And as I go along, something I read in my research starts me thinking," hey, that would make a good article on its own!"

Hope this helps

[stephanie]

Thanks for that, Debbie. It does help! I guess I've become lazy over the years. Long ago, I used to *have* to come up with ideas in order to pitch them to magazines; then I moved on to being assigned stories and later I got into copy writing where the subject is again always provided (ie., whatever the product is that you're selling).

It's not just a lack of curiosity I suffer; it's also a lack of direction. For instance, even when you pitch a story for a magazine, you need to make sure you're targeting for a certain readership, fit into an editorial calendar, and generally cover topics within that publication's scope.

I think the best form of "direction" is, as you suggested, to see if there's anything under Recently Sold that I could run with.

Thanks again.
steph

[MediaMaven]

Well my November challenge hit a bit of a SNAFU over the weekend. My goal for the month was to write 2,500 words a week of draft article material ON TOP OF the 50,000-word novel I'm trying to get done for NaNoWriMo. As of Saturday I had about 1,300 words worth of article material and 4,500 words into my novel. I was all set for a weekend writing marathon when CRASH, BANG, BOOM, I tripped over my laptop cord and it smashed onto the floor. My laptop survived, but my USB stick with all of my work did not. Thankfully I have a friend who worked some magic with a soldering iron and got all of my data back. Unfortunately my precious weekend time went to waste and I have to play catch-up in the evenings.

This is a good time to remind everyone to have a decent back-up plan (and actually follow it). I had backup software on my memory stick that only needed two clicks to backup all of my data, but I hadn't done it in several weeks. I'm going to be a lot more agressive with that backup button from now on!

[nichewriter]

I'm sorry to hear about your recent snafu, MediaMaven, and glad you managed to salvage the data on your USB stick!

I back up my computer every week. Seems overkill, but I've learned my lesson 10 years ago when my hard drive fried and I didn't have a back up. I use Acronis to back up to an external hard drive that's dedicated just for back ups of all our computers here at home (2 desktops, 4 laptops, and 2 netbooks) and Acronis is by far the best back up program I have come across.

~Sherry

[Celeste Stewart]

THat's good that you got your data back! I use iDrive online backup. YOu get 2GB free which is plenty for my writing and financial stuff thought not enough for photos/videos. Of course, you can get more space for a fee. What's cool with this backup software is that it recognizes when you've created a new file or changed an existing one and automatically backups up the new or changed file within ten minutes of its creation/edit. So, even if you have the software set to backup your data every night, you won't lose a day's worth of data if your computer crashes before the backup. It's awesome and has saved me many hours!

I used to use BeinSync which had this same feature and it cost a few bucks for comparable space. The software was discontinued much to my disappointment. I then used Mozy and didn't like it. Plus no continuous backup. So glad I found iDrive. It doesn't slow my computer either.

[kaarinastjohn]

I am just new to Constant Content, but my goal is to be a regular contributor by the New Year... until then I plan to get my feet wet. It is inspiring to read about how others are doing and how it really is possible to have a career as a freelance writer! Until now that always seemed like a pipe dream to me. It's taken me 15 years to come to the realization that this is what I am supposed to be doing. It really is true what they say - find a job you love and you won't work another day in your life...

[HayleyWriter]

Hi all,

I decided to do something a bit different with this month's challenge. I had been thinking about a project for some time, but I finally got around to just doing it! This project is not something I can submit to CC, but it is certainly related to working on CC!

I have created an ebook called "Sales Success on Constant Content", which explains to new authors how CC works, how to meet the submission guidelines (including a checklist), what NOT to do, and how to make freelance writing a success on CC. This 30 page ebook took up most of my writing time this month, but I am happy with the results. Thanks for all the challenges that help us authors stretch our skills and become better writers.

Kind regards,

Hayley

[Celeste Stewart]

Good for you Hayley! That's exactly what this month's challenge is about: doing whatever it is we've been wanting to do with CC. All of these challenges are designed to get each of us moving in one way or another. I'm a firm believer in taking action. We can't wait for success to land in our laps - we have to go after it! Whether it's writing X amount of articles, trying a new topic, pricing an article at what we really think it deserves, polishing our grammar weaknesses, or trying something beyond our wildest dreams, if we can imagine it, we can do it!

[Debbi]

My goal was to get a private request and I did it! I had written for public requests from the buyer and took the chance of contacting her to see if she wanted anything else on the topic. That's really the first time I felt comfortable enough to contact a buyer and see if a private request was possible and it paid off. Now she wants me to propose other articles.