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About This Author
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La Bene Vita
I am a professional musician  , worship leader , small business owner , songwriter , aspiring author and freelance nonfiction writer with a chemical engineering degree .
But that's just my resume.
My profile of qualifications is only one of the ways in which I am unique. Here I chronicle my personal and professional goals and my efforts to achieve them. Occasionally I fail. Mostly, I take daily baby steps toward all my long-term goals. Much like the stories I pen, the songs I compose, and the businesses I run, I am always a work in progress.
August 30, 2011 at 12:41pm August 30, 2011 at 12:41pm
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So, I wrote another Textbroker article today. It was worth about $20, and it took me about an hour. That's decent wages for any job, so I should do more of it. It was a sales copy assignment, which tend to be my best gigs. They require minimal research - just enough to read the company's website and learn about the product, then use sales language to explain why you should buy it. I always want to buy stuff, so it comes easily. It doesn't take much to convince myself that I want that awesome thing, so why should it be hard to convince someone else? Sales copy may be my favorite kind of writing.
Yes, it ranks higher than songwriting. Truth be told, songwriting is my least favorite kind of writing. It's too much work. Even fiction comes much easier to me, OCD planner that I am. Sadly, I enjoy the finished product of the songwriting process, so I do force myself to write songs now and then.
It is GORGEOUS today. I'm sitting on the deck soaking up rays and letting the pup run loose in the back yard. It's so nice and relaxed, even the cat braved a trip to my side for a head scratch, despite the hovering threat of a vicious six-pound dog running loose. (Did I mention that the cat is 13 pounds?) I wish I could write out here, but I can barely see the screen in the glare of the sun. Am I the only writer annoyed by that??
Reach 300 students at MTMS by 12/31/11.
 215, but it's the end of the month again, so we're expecting withdrawals. After hovering at 200 for a month, now we'll probably hover around 215 for a month.  As an example, I enrolled three new students last night, and I withdrew three students last night, and that was just in private lessons. I also withdrew two students from classes, but enrolled eleven students in two new band classes that start next month.
Writing:
(1)  Blog at MT.com by the end of Wednesday: Not this week.
(2) 30 minutes of daily freestyle writing: Not deliberately. I did write a Textbroker article and this blog post, so it's not like I slacked in the writing department today.
Count points:
TODAY: Meh. |
August 26, 2011 at 9:33am August 26, 2011 at 9:33am
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I spent my morning reading reviews of Textbroker.com, where a writer who earns at least a Level 4 rating can earn a decent freelance income. Opinions from both customers and authors vary, but generally speaking, the reviews are good. I personally earned enough Textbroker income to receive a 1099 last year, and I wrote all the articles in my spare time and with minimal research. While not nearly enough to live on, I could have, for example, replaced my laptop with my Textbroker income.
However, I stumbled across an article that contradicts the value of Textbroker, lumping it with other Internet "content mills" whose sole purpose in life is to maximize SEO and lead Google searchers to your website:
http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/is-your-schlock-writing-dismembering-infants/
I love this article. Every article you read about SEO reports that "content is king." But everyone knows it, so websites publish more and more content every day. Blogging used to be the future of writing. Like any market, supply and demand drives the success of blogging, and these days, bloggers outnumber readers. When supply exceeds demand, competition for buyers gets fierce.
I should know. I've been trying to sell my house for two years.
I originally searched for Textbroker reviews because I was mulling over the company's successful business plan. I enjoy writing for them, but I would be happier running my own writing-related business, so I was evaluating their model. I'm not sure if the web content business is on the upswing or downswing, but the wolf-howl.com blogger opines that it will decline at some point. I see the logic in his argument, which makes me wonder if I missed that boat already (as a business owner, not a writer. I think I still have plenty of earning power at Textbroker.)
On the other hand, he suggests it's not the sheer volume alone diluting the readership of Internet content, but the substandard quality. Society will always have readers, and the number of readers has not decreased. People may at some point be willing to pay for good writing again, possibly in the form of subscriptions to high-quality content sites.
It's an interesting paradigm shift, since I've considered the book industry fading due to the popularity of Internet content. I'm not sure I agree that subscriptions are the future of the reading business, since a number of huge corporate sites already own reputations as "the" homes for quality content (e.g., Yahoo and Huffington Post.)
I'm still watching the market, but I'm not ready to get in yet. Maybe once my music school business earns me a substantial income and grows to several campuses, I might consider investing in the business of reading. As another entertainment venue, it's not so different from what I already do and would fit my portfolio nicely.
Heh. My "portfolio" - like I have a whole collection of businesses.
IN OTHER CAREER NEWS: Tonight I have an audition with a band. Not sure if we're a fit - the last singer was sort of a hard-core belter, and that's not really my style. She had some accuracy problems, too, though, and they might like my polish. *shrug* We'll see if it's my path. Meanwhile, my church is hiring a new worship leader, and I may consider the position. *considers*
Reach 300 students at MTMS by 12/31/11.
Starting to climb: 212 at the close of business last night.
Writing:
(1) Blog at MT.com by the end of Wednesday: Heh. More content?
(2) 30 minutes of daily freestyle writing:The huge introduction to this blog post should count, but I think I meant fiction or songwriting when I devised this goal.
Count points:
TODAY: 8
6 Mini-bagel with cream cheese
2 Coffee |
August 23, 2011 at 1:15pm August 23, 2011 at 1:15pm
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Tuesdays are kind of nice. I don't have to work until later in the evening, like 4pm-ish. Fridays, I have the day off, and that's even better.
I might take on a new (additional) role at church. I didn't plan on it and was going to hire someone, but when a peer suggested I just do it myself, the pastors basically said that if I'm interested, they won't even bother to interview anyone else. It's a little outside of my comfort zone, but I think it's supposed to challenge me to grow. I'm not sure yet, but it shouldn't be that big of a time commitment.
Reach 300 students at MTMS by 12/31/11.
200-ish. It was like 203.5 when I left last night, but it hit 207.5 at some point, before I processed a couple withdrawals.
I've been thinking of expanding early. Our current target is fall of 2013, and I'm considering pushing it up to fall of 2012. Most of my advisors think it's a bad idea because the two biggest reasons small business fail is (1) they don't properly manage cash flow and run out of money, and (2) they try to grow too fast. However, I think we're going to run out of space before fall 2013. So I'm on the fence.
Writing:
(1)  Blog at MT.com by the end of Wednesday: Yes.
(2) 30 minutes of daily freestyle writing: I wrote a Textbroker article today. There are a ton of Level 5 Open Orders, and if this one is accepted with minor or no revision, I may write a slew of them. Or at least a couple.
Count points:
Monday: 35-ish.
Tuesday: 16.5 (so far)
2.5 Coffee
2 Banana
2 Special K granola bar
7 Lasagna
3 Chips |
August 22, 2011 at 2:34pm August 22, 2011 at 2:34pm
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Reach 300 students at MTMS by 12/31/11.
200-ish. On the plus side, our inquiries have picked up substantially in the last couple of days. That's a good sign.
Writing:
(1) Blog at MT.com by the end of Wednesday: Yep.
(2) 30 minutes of daily freestyle writing: Ha ha!! I revised two very, very short poems. This is going to be a controversial statement, but I believe a vast majority of the poetry on WDC, including my own, is the lazy man's writing. I'd like to be a writer, but I only want to invest ten or fifteen minutes at a time, so I'll throw two verses of poetry together. Once you get to verse three, you have to work at it to make the patterns fit.. Likewise, flash is the lazy man's fiction. The truth is, if you want to be a professional writer, you have to carve out larger chunks of time for writing and stick to the schedule with commitment and dedication.
I, sadly, don't have that level of commitment to writing. At some point, I may need to acknowledge that I wasn't meant to be a professional writer.
Count points:
Monday: 19 (so far)
2 Special K granola bar
4 1 cup Raisin Bran with 1/2 cup skim milk
1.5 Coffee
2 Lemonheads
2 Nutrigrain Bar
4.5 Coconut M&M's
1 Peanut butter pretzels
2 Soup |
August 21, 2011 at 1:09pm August 21, 2011 at 1:09pm
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1. After about five days of illness, my fever finally broke. It took me the next ten to catch back up.
2. To the people who post on Facebook that they're bored or have nothing to do, I have several volunteer opportunities for you. Shoot me an email. And if you don't want to volunteer for me personally, I get that, and I'm not offended. I can give you a list of ideas on how you can volunteer your services for the good of society instead. Helping others not only cures boredom, but it's also a great remedy for depression. You should try it.
3. I have got to stop overeating. Please ask me what I ate today. Ask me again tomorrow and the next day. Embarrass the shit out of me. I'm pretty sure that's what it's going to take.
Reach 300 students at MTMS by 12/31/11.
Still around 200 +/- 5. The fall ramp-up isn't happening as quickly as I'd hoped. *pokes the enrollment list* Grow, damn it!
Writing:
(1) Blog at MT.com by the end of Wednesday: Yes! I blogged, yay, go me!
(2) 30 minutes of daily freestyle writing: Um... Okay, so I find myself sadly uninspired to write. My innovative tendencies lean toward generation of business growth and improvement ideas instead. I did try to compile an emotional inventory to see why inspiration is lacking, and on analysis, I find myself overwhelmingly content. People just don't write about being content. Hence, I haven't written anything original in over a year. If I weren't such a slacker, I might use this time of clearheadedness to revise my lackluster portfolio.
Count points:
OMG I AM GETTING SO FLIPPING FAT. |
August 12, 2011 at 5:45pm August 12, 2011 at 5:45pm
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| Bleh. Unproductive. Who gets sick this long? |
August 11, 2011 at 9:45am August 11, 2011 at 9:45am
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Well, I've had the flu. That set me back approximately three days... on everything.
Blogging observations: At its peak, my WDC blog had about three times as many readers as it does currently. Since I stopped scrolling and writing new pieces, I've become less visible. Visibility of the author = interest in the author's blog? As my local celebrity grows (mostly due to the 30-foot sign on Hamilton Road proudly displaying my stage name), will my visibility yield interest in any writing I might pursue under that name? Alexa still ranks my site at just over 600,000 global (146,000 in the US), with about 1/3 of visitors bouncing, and the other 2/3 spending an average of 10 minutes on the site viewing an average of 10 pages. Interesting, but it doesn't answer the visibility question. Google Analytics reports 84 visitors in the last week.
Reach 300 students at MTMS by 12/31/11.
Still hovering around 200.
Writing:
(1) Blog at MT.com by the end of Wednesday: Nope.
(2) 30 minutes of daily freestyle writing: Nope. I've been toying with the urge to go through my port and edit.
Count points: Nope, but I didn't eat much of anything yesterday. |
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I need to boost my income stream a smidge. There are about four ways I could do that: (1) pull a salary from the business account; (2) sell my house (although that's technically cutting expense, it amounts to the same thing as pulling a salary, because paying for that stupid house is an unbudgeted business expense that I've managed to support); (3) write articles, and (4) gig.
Option #1 makes the most sense. The more time I invest in the finances of my business, the more savvy I'll be as I start implementing expansion plans. I'm holding out for our August/September volume ramp up, because we're counting on big fall growth based on our experience in this business, but I don't know yet exactly what that will look like. Also, pulling a salary for myself now will push back other staff additions that I've promised. So at this point, I plan to add an owner salary, but not until I reach a certain volume. ...and I'm not there yet. I project that I'll be there around November, which is *gulp* sooner than we all think.
Option #2 is theoretically the easiest. Somebody tell that to my real estate agent, who is the fourth I've had in two years on the market, since I first listed in August 2009. Happy Anniversary.
Option #3 has the benefit of brushing up my writing skills. It doesn't take a lot of time, and I can pick and choose the articles I write, basically deciding how much time I want to invest and how much I want to earn. I would need to budget time for this. I can't even keep up with my business blog or my Writing.com blog, so what makes me think I can find time to write articles??
Option #4 is my favorite. But the gigging itself is the easy part. Cutting a new CD, creating business cards, and marketing to local venues will be expensive, time-consuming, and frustrating. This is why entertainment acts have managers.
Option #5, which I did not mention, is to get a part-time job. I deliberately didn't mention this one.
My problem is that I'd like to do all of them, so I waffle. Story of my life. I should pick one and focus.
Reach 300 students at MTMS by 12/31/11.
Hovering around 200. For the curious, if I sell my house, I can redirect funds and pull an owner salary immediately. Otherwise, I'll start earning when I hit around 250.
Writing:
(1) Blog at MT.com by the end of Wednesday: Nope.
(2) 30 minutes of daily freestyle writing: Nope.
(3)  Search top blogs and analyze: I feel like this was a one-time shot, which I accomplished. I would set a goal to read top blogs, but I do this every day, every time I open Yahoo to read my email and catch the latest title on the Yahoo front page. I keep thinking that I'm smart enough to launch a successful Internet business or publishing business, so I keep trying to research these things. But neither of those made the Top 5 list above. Maybe once my current brick-and-mortar business is running itself, then I can think about starting additional businesses.
Count points: Nope, and I feel ill. |
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Reach 300 students at MTMS by 12/31/11.
Hovering around 200.
Writing:
(1) Blog at MT.com by the end of Wednesday: Nope.
(2) 30 minutes of daily freestyle writing: Nope.
(3) Search top blogs and analyze: I spent a big of time on this today. I reviewed two lists of top blogs to identify the most popular Internet reading material:
LIST #1 (from top-blogs.org):
Autoblog: Covering the auto industry with test drives and commentary on articles from other sites.
TheHuffingtonPost: Breaking news and opinion on The Huffington Post
Engadget: Obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics.
Business Insider: Deep financial, entertainment, green tech and digital industry news.
Serious Eats: Sharing food enthusiasm through online conversation, multiple blogs, and video.
The Boot: All about country music.
Cinematical: Movies, celebrities, and entertainment.
Bleacher Report: Sports journalists and bloggers.
Mashable: Social Media news blog covering cool new websites and social networks.
Etc. The ongoing list addresses more technology, music, pop culture, weather, science, and politics.
LIST #2 (from Time Magazine):
The Everywhereist - quirky journalist who documents travel and highlights funny links from outside sources
The Big Picture - the coolest photos EVER taken by daredevil photographers, mostly re:current events
The Truth About Cars - self-explanatory
OkTrends - uses math to make dating fascinating (creative analysis and infographics)
Videogum - covers TV, movies, and viral Web videos
This Is My Next - covers upcoming hot gadgets, e.g., "This is my next CAMERA"
Etc. Very similar to the previous list.
What? You mean people are searching the web for my top-quality fiction, original songs, and sub-par poetry, let alone my fascinating personal and business life? Apparently not. This prompted me to determine the top Google searches, which today include:
1. vindictus
2. maplestory
3. tca
4. deion sanders
5. viggo mortensen
6. spiderman 3
7. elisha cuthbert
8. the girl next door
9. enfield
10. amazon
If I want to write a highly acclaimed blog, I apparently need a degree in journalism. And a lot of time on my hands. ........or a really original idea.
Count points: Nope. |
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I had a tenant... again... and it fell through... again. At least this one didn't tell me, "When I said I could pay $900 a month, I meant $650." Why is $650 the magic number? People, if you have $650 to pay on rent, then rent an apartment, not a house.
But this guy doesn't even have $650. From the time he agreed to the rent on Friday until he was supposed to pay yesterday (the 1st), he lost one of his major landscaping contracts. So now he can afford zero.
I know I should not be griping. Our budget may be tight, but we can afford all our bills, even with a mortgage on a house we don't occupy. The would-be tenant who lost his contract isn't sure where he's going to sleep this weekend, and that sucks. What sucks even worse is that it's par for the course. But I can't help but feel frustrated over the status of a house I've been trying to sell for two years.
I got a random private query at Textbroker. It's been awhile. Maybe I should write a few articles. I lost track of all my goals in the weekend frenzy to get my house ready for a nonexistent tenant, but I had been thinking about writing again. In fact, I have a new goal on my list: Search top blogs and analyze. If I meet my goal (always a challenge), you may see analyses posted here at WDC for comment. I'm always interested in analytical discussions over writing.
Reach 300 students at MTMS by 12/31/11.
We're hovering around 195 while we wait out the week and see who ends up withdrawing this week.
Reading: One book per week.
No activity... and I plan to cut this goal. I've been reading fiction often enough, and I plan to add blog analysis, so 
Writing:
(1) Blog at MT.com by the end of Wednesday: Not yet.
(2) 30 minutes of daily freestyle writing: Not yet.
(3) Search top blogs and analyze: Not yet.
Count points:
2 Coffee
6 Bacon |
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Even better if she can whistle to the tune of Mozart or something. 
Comment • View 1 comment 
, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.![Merit Badge in Music
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To a dear friend whose talent for writing music is sensational. May you have a fabulous New Year, (((Brandi)))!!! *^*Kiss*^*
Big hugs,
Sherri *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Music-1050.gif)
![Merit Badge in Organization
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I don't know how you do it, but I assume there's magic involved *^*Bigsmile*^* I have really enjoyed this month of planning and preparation for NaNoWriMo and I love how organized it all is. Thank you for hosting a great challenge and for your dedication to helping so many of us prepare with confidence and trepidation for National Novel Writing Month (known to sane folks as 'November' *^*Laugh*^*) at your [Link To Item #1474311]](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Organization-1150.gif)
![Merit Badge in Leadership
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For your hard work, commitment, talent and innovation in running the October NaNoWriMo Preparation each year, which helps many of us get our scattered thoughts together for November's novel-writing. And also because this badge has ducks on it.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Leadership.gif)
