Briana’s Blog of Madness

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Well, I had to stop working much earlier than I had wanted to because of storms coming in, but I managed to get quite a bit done. I never feel like I’ve done enough, but I did get things done.

I got:

1. the Google AdSense fixed on all three blogs
2. Google search updated on 2 blogs
3. PageNavi added to my blog
4. WishAds fixed on 2 blogs
5. 2 new posts on LTdV
6. 2 new posts on BPC
7. Widgets fixed on BBoM
8. Google profile updated
9. Other little tweaks

I guess when I put it in a list like that, I can see that I got quite a bit done. I know that there’s always more to do, but I got a lot of the important things out of the way. I’m happy that I’m getting better at working fast and efficiently, and I can get more done in less time than before.

Last night I was asking the universe to bring me money, and thinking about how nice it would be to have it. Today I had a sales email from CP. I’m really happy about that. I want sales emails every day, and several of them. I like it when I make sales and get money. Updating the AdSense codes will help with that. By adding the image ads and making the code look better, I’m increasing the chance that people will click on the ads. I also added ads to the store blog, which means more pages with ads that can get clicked.

I think the universe is starting to answer my request, and that is really nice. I hope that it will continue to bring me what I ask for. It will be so awesome to open my mail each day and see the sales rolling in. I love that feeling. It never stopped being exciting when I was making multiple daily sales with CP. It was always a joy to see those messages. I’m all for seeing more of those, and sales and payment notices from all the other things I’m involved in too.

I’m in a weird place right now. I thought I was going to lose my CafePress store, but then it got saved for another year. I was scrambling to learn Zazzle and get set up there, but now it’s not a crucial hurry. I need to make money, but I’m not sure where I should put my energy and attention.

I have a lot of little things that I’m working on, and I’m not sure where I should be focusing my time, or which one is  likely to bring me the money I need in the shortest amount of time.

The online job service I’m using offers nearly instant payment, but most of the jobs are $0.50 or less, so it’s a lot of work for small returns. Putting my art in CP and Zazzle can make money in the long run, but it takes a lot of time to get the stuff up and active, and then do the marketing to get people to the items, and hope that they’ll buy, which is never a guarantee. I have all the other little things, like my articles and blogs, but those are kind of an ongoing trickle, and not something that is ever going to generate a lot of cash. There just something that will eventually add money to the pot.

I wish I knew what to be focusing on. I know that I need to narrow my focus, and work on just a few things instead of everything at once. However, the stuff in my stores is going to take a lot of marketing, and about the only thing I know how to do for that is to blog, Twitter, and be active in blog networks and things like that. Marketing is SO not my thing. I wish I had someone that could do that for me.

I hate not knowing what to do. It makes things so annoying for me.

You may have noticed from my tweets that there have been some good developments lately. We got some money toward the phone bill for one, and that was definitely a relief.

On other good news, I found someone to edit my novel. I’m hoping that it can be revised into something fit for publishing. While the premise is good, it’s lacking in depth right now.

I’ve also found a couple of online communities that I’m actually interested in getting involved with. For a long time I have been wanting to join some groups so that I would have people to chat with about things that interest me, and so that I could develop more of an online presence. Unfortunately, there were problems.

For one, I had a hard time finding forums that focused on topis I was interested. When I did find one, I’d read the forums and realize that the users were not people I’d get along with, or the posts were too often off topic or spammy. Then there’s the fact that I didn’t want to have to make usernames and passwords for a ton more sites, and have to log into them all the time to keep up with what was happening.

As it turns out, I’ve come across a couple of networks that allow me to have one username and password, and interact with various interest groups as I see fit. I’ve only joined one group so far, but from the looks of it, I could find several places where I can learn, share knowledge, interact and even just chat. I like that.

Another good thing is the fact that I seem to be getting new Twitter followers every day. What’s more is that 99% of them are strangers. That’s a good thing, because it means they really want to read what I have to say, they’re not just connecting to me because they know me, then ignoring my posts. I seem to be gaining popularity online.

The downside is that I’m still not sleeping enough. Between Eric breathing like Darth Vader at night, and my mind refusing to turn off, or my body aching so much I can’t get comfortable, I’m just not getting enough rest. I rarely nap in the daytime, it’s just not how I work. If I’m up, I’m up, and that’s all there is to it.

It just occurred to me that I’m supposed to be up at 11AM and going to the bank. It’s 20 ’til 6 right now. If I don’t get any rest, it’s really going to suck. I wish that I could fall asleep like other people. I’ve had sleeping problems since I was 13, but at my age, it’s really taking more of a toll on me than it did when I was younger. I’m achy as hell right now too. That does NOT help matters at all.

*sigh* I don’tknow whether to stay up and deal with the consequences, or try to go back to bed and hope Eric’s quiet. I need sleep to function, but it seems the cards are perpetually stacked against me on that one. Eh, I’ll let you know tomorrow… I mean, later, how I fared.