Postcards from the Funny Farm

When boats aim at a destination, they need a rudder to correct their course again and again to reach the goal. This starts at the departure and continues to the end of the journey. Since I started writing articles in this blog, my goal has always been to reach people with my writing. Connecting with people has been a passion of mine through writing, music, teaching, and relationships as long as I can remember. I study people like Walt Disney and M. Scott Peck who are experts at doing this and I try to get better each day. Through teaching I make my living and believe me, that job is 100% about connecting with people. I’ve made a minimal amount of money with my music and of course relationships don’t need to earn you monetary rewards. Writing has made me some money but not as much as the music. I am determined in 2008 to merge my passion for connection with making money online.

So what does this mean Damien? Are we going to see a bunch of ads and pay per posts on this blog now?

Some, but I’m writing them all to this blog audience. I promise that any pay per posts will be directed at the stuff that affects my demographic of readers: intelligent, entertainment lovers, family people, cyberculture folks … just to name a few attributes. For example, right now I am hosting an ad for “Fandango” in my sidebar. If you are going to movies and you buy your tickets through clicking that ad, I get a few cents of the purchase. And Fandango is a cool way to pre-buy you tickets. Sarah and I always use it.

There is another benefit to my mmol (making money online) course with this blog: I’m very transparent about what is going on with earnings. This will enable YOU to learn what works out there and what is a scam so you can monetize your online writing. I’m a 38 year old with a Master’s Degree in Writing and certainly not new to the online writing scene. What is new is my course correction toward making money online. Up to now, that has never been a priority. Remember that a blog is only one way to make money at writing online. Helium, for example, is writing website that gives you topics to write on and they can make $20-$200 per assignment. And then of course there are online magazines which I intend to explore this year as well. I’ve been practicing by publishing on BlogCritics since last July.

Not all my posts will be pay for hire. In fact, expect to see only about 3/10 posts that way. The rest will be anecdotes about my teaching, family, music, and life as I see it. There will be the occasionally heavily researched article with sources linked and then there will be the intermittent “quote” or “link” with nothing more than a few words in the spirit of a true tumblelog. If you’re new to my blog, check out my sitemap and read some posts of the past year in the various categories. I hope you will subscribe so we can make a connection in the coming year. I am very loyal to my frequent commenters and I pay back any way I can. The fact is, the more readers I have and the more people link to this site, the better I look to prospective clients and that helps me make more money. This in turn encourages me to take more time developing powerful posts with great links that will impact my readers even more.

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Since I applied to PayPerPost I have become a better copy/ad writer. It has challenged me since every post is a new opportunity to use rhetoric, wit, and candor to sell a product. I like PayPerPost because I get to select the ad campaign to write for. This is helpful because not every ad is something I know about or am interested in. I also like how it empowers me, the writer, to earn money by simply following the terms of the offer. These terms are very clearly laid out and there isn’t any guesswork.

As I draft, revise and finally post, I learn about writing. I have to envision a given audience and then craft my words around that image. If you think about it, that is really all a writing class does for you. I ought to know, I have my MA in English and sat through many of them. I guess the differences between taking an ad writing class and writing for PayPerPost are that 1) You don’t have a professor grading your work and 2) you get paid. So, if you’re wanting to become a better writer at home without a professor and you want to get paid for it … PayPerPost’s the thing.

I just installed their toolbar on my Firefox browser. This thing makes PayPerPost even easier to use. As you surf the net, it indicates if a page has an opportunity to write for them. It also displays the day’s “Random 10″ PayPerPost writers so you can get to know other folks like yourself blogging and getting better at PayPerPost. In today’s blogosphere, networking is crucial to PageRank and traffic. This new toolbar, along with well-written posts, can help raise both.

To anyone who has a blog they write in frequently, I highly recommend PayPerPost as a way to get better at writing to a topic and get paid to blog!

It has been an amazing 2007 for me at blogging. I have become comfortable with the craft and learned valuable lessons that help me communicate better with my audience. One thing I regret is not getting on the ad bandwagon up to now. I have even criticized it once or twice publicly which I see now was just plain arrogance.

I wanted to share the things I am doing this year from the get go to improve my rating and to hopefully make money on my blog. I still treasure the art of free-form blogging, so don’t expect that to change, but my wife and I both think it would be ideal if we could somehow generate revenue while we do the writing and networking that we love so much.

If you haven’t noticed already, there are now small ads at Postcards from the Funny Farm. I started with Adsense since they were the first to accept me. I am also currently waiting to see if Text Link Ads can sell anything on my site. As income is generated, I will pay back the community by a breakdown of where it came in from and how I did it. Right now there are no earnings.

With all the name, rss, and theme changing in the past months, my Technorati and daily traffic stats have suffered greatly. Some folks who used to comment everyday don’t show up as much, and I understand change freaks people out (I freak myself out in fact!) but the results are always very gratifying in blog content and visual presentation. To those on my blogroll who haven’t stopped in (btw thanks again to the regular die hards who never stopped) I say this: Things are gonna remain static for a while and as much as you can link to content my blog is highly appreciated. As you know, this increases Google “Page Rank” (mine currently is a 4/10 which is pretty good considering) and thereby, advertisers see me as a good investment. Plus, it gets content to a wider audience which, as far as goals go, was my “first love” with Postcards from the Funny Farm. Now, the question of all my posts in a day.

Does this new trend bother you? If so, please let me know. I highly enjoy my blog now as a “Tumblelog” where I am entering short posts throughout the day from various locations (even my phone and camera). I do see one potential problem with it however, finding the longer, more thought out prose articles may not be worth the effort to passersby and they might miss the good writing in between the tumbles. Here’s my solution: A new blog I named after my favorite plate: Cheese Enchiladas. I have back dated posts there from this blog that I see as my best writing and I am future dating new posts to be released on a weekly basis. To those who are bothered by the Tumblelog style of Postcards … but still like my writing and want to keep up, I recommend going to Cheese Enchiladas and subscribing there. You can always check in to Postcards when you’re feeling artsy or just looking for some non-traditional inspiration.

Okay, now for the grand finale as I move into te new year: my projected routine to achieve my personal blogging goals in 2008:

1. Write one amazing post per week on Cheese Enchiladas.
2. Publish once a week on BlogCritics (currently I am working with an editor on a post about the writers strike, I will always link these at Postcards when they are published.)
3. Write on PayPerPost a week (I will host these on Postcards)
4. Post a note or clip on 9Rules each week.
5. Reevaluate earnings with Adsense and TextLinkAds after 6 months (June 2008 - My 39th birthday)
6. Do interviews and guestblogs on other blogs wherever folks will have me.

For reference sake, here’s a list of my online “condos” where you’ll always find me hanging out this year:

Postcards from the Funny Farm
Online diary, Tumblelog, and Photoblog by Damien Riley
postcardsfromthefunnyfarm.com

Cheese Enchiladas
A Weekly Column by Damien Riley
postcardsfromthefunnyfarm.com/ecolumn/

BlogCritics
Author Page and Featured Posts
blogcritics.org/writer/damien_riley

Helium
Bio and Featured articles
http://www.helium.com/user/show/47930

9Rules
Author Page and Profile
9rules.com/my/rileycentral/

Damien Riley Tunes
My Original Recorded Music
myspace.com/damienrileytunes

To everyone who reads my stuff: God Bless and have a great last few days of 2007! Keep it fun and relaxed.

Damien

* To interview me or have me guest blog on your site, just email me the idea at: rileycentral at gmail dot com

I’ve recently started a traditional writing blog to accompany this blog, a Tumblelog-Hybrid, I’ve had for over a year. Since I did so, I find myself imagining topics for new blogs … it’s getting ridiculous! They are so much work.Still, I don’t know if keeping multiple blogs is such a bad idea. I’m curious how you feel about having multiple blogs. I know an effective blogger who has 4 (that I know of) and he posts on his site that he brings in about $600 on links and advertising. (wow! must be nice) I also know someone who has aout 10 blogs, all on blogger and they just seem empty and simply fulfilling the role of categories on one effective blog.

I’d like to hear your experiences and input on the idea of keeping multiple blogs.

I’ve settled on two ad sponsors to start the new year with: Adsense and TextLink Ads. Like Dereksemmler.com reports on his blog faithfully, I will try and post the results of these sponsors and say whether I recommend them or not. I’m giving them a 6 month shot. Besides that, I have my work cut out for me in the writing department (see goals below). Feel free to follow the various feeds to keep up with me. As always, your comments are appreciated (especially yours Jessica the Rock Chick! I’ve really been happy to read your comments lately, thank you!)

Weekly Blogging Goals for 2008:1) Write one post/week on My “Best of” Writing Blog, Cheese Enchiladas.2) Write One BlogCritics post/week (these don’t pay but they critique mywriting, making it an excercise in good writing)3) Write One PayPerPost/week.

4) Monitor and adjust Adsense and text-Link Ads for 6 months. Re-evaluate ad-space investment then.

Press Release:

Damien Riley is a teacher and freelance writer in Southern California. He maintains a blog on psychology and inspiration and also publishes an online diary. Many of his writings are based on experiences as a teacher.  He is currently available for hire as a freelance writer on any topic.

Longer Bio:

Welcome to “Postcards from the Funny Farm.”  I’m Damien Riley: dad, teacher, author in Southern California. I’ve been interested in creative writing since I was in the 4th grade and my interest in the guitar started even sooner. I started teaching elementary school in 1997 after a run with my band and a try at commercial songwriting success. You can read more about that time and hear the songs on my Myspace page. Now, after 10 years of teaching and publishing both online and off, I am pleased to produce three blogs I update nearly daily. Postcards is my most infamous with a loyal base of readers and new friends stopping by each day. I earned my MA in English from California State University, Fullerton in 1998 where I majored in English. My emphasis was made specifically for future college teachers: “Language, Writing, and Rhetoric.”

I met my wife Sarah when I moved to the High Desert of California in 2002.  Since then we have commenced raising a family with three kids and we became homeowners in 2008.  Much of my past writing has included family stories and they are always giving me new material.

With blogging, or “speed publishing,” what I write is often gone forever after a few hours. That’s why I try to make it relevant and not too long. I think I’ve been successful at that and made it a habit for a while now.  In addition to publishing on my three blogs, I write articles across the web. Here’s a link to an archived list that’s always growing.

My Publishings

There are also a few interviews of me out there on the internet. Thank you again to the blogs who host them.:

Interviews:
Do You Diggit
FuelMyBlog
The Man Page
This Eclectic Life

By the way, here are the other two blogs I publish:

Damien at the Speed of Life

Dynamite Lesson Plan

And last but not least my BlogCritics published works can be found here.

blogcritics.org/writer/damien_riley

I am available for hire as a freelance writer. For more information, please visit my resume pages.

Thanks for visiting,
Damien

* To contact me, use the contact form below or if forms aren’t your thing email me at: rileycentral at yahoo dot com

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