Photo by green kozi (flickr)

Are you setting goals so tight that you can’t breathe, let alone work? This is how I felt several months ago after I made my schedule. I had so many goals that I wanted to accomplish and very little time to accomplish them. As a result, I felt burdened and my motivation to accomplish these goals plunged.

Don’t let yourself make the same mistake.

Are You Claustrophobic? Give Yourself Room.

Ambitious goals are fine. Over ambitious goals aren’t.

I was so certain that I was doing myself a favor by creating next-to-impossible goals to achieve. After all, if I worked harder, wouldn’t I achieve more? That was my mindset. And what really happened? I lost motivation. I began to procrastinate. I became lazy. Some part of me didn’t want to spend 24 hours of the day working, and so I didn’t. I stopped working completely for a few days, before I slapped myself in the head and re-planned my goals.

You see, at the time of creating them, I had no idea that they were next-to-impossible goals to achieve. It was late at night and I was sure I could wake up in the morning and complete my goals no problem by 5pm. I just had to put more effort into it and work harder. I knew my goals were more strenuous than the norm. It was only later when I realized that my over ambitious goals just weren’t working for me.

How to Avoid Tying Yourself Down to Your Goals

How do you avoid making the same mistake I made? Well, there are a few things you can do.

• Set your goals when you’re actually functioning. When I set my over ambitious goals, it was late at night and I was extremely tired from a long day of work. I figured I could use that extra time before bed to plan out the day for tomorrow. At that time of day, I clearly wasn’t thinking and my fogged up brain was confusing me with superwoman.
• It’s fine to want to over-achieve, but make sure you have time to eat, sleep and relax. If you thought that you could work continuously non-stop for hours, you’re sadly mistaken. Your body naturally needs a few relaxation periods. If you don’t let your poor fingers rest, your body will shut down.
• Only work for a set number of hours, and set a deadline in which you’ll stop working. I find that I work best in the morning, so I try to stop working at 5pm. If you don’t have a set deadline in which you’ll stop working, you’ll have nothing to look forward to and you’ll just stress yourself out. Don’t do more work than you can handle.
• Set several easy-to-achieve goals and only one or two difficult task(s) per day. Easy goals are often more fun to work with. Difficult goals aren’t. Maintain your motivation by setting several goals that are easy to reach. Do your difficult tasks first and know that your easy-to-achieve goals will follow. You’ll become more productive.
• Give yourself breathing room. If you don’t like achieving multiple goals a day, strive to achieve several goal a week. That way, your deadline is further away. I find that if I set daily goals, I’m less likely to complete them than if I set weekly goals. It also becomes stressful if I set daily goals, as I’m afraid I’m not going to complete them in time. When you set weekly goals, spend a few hours to complete each one every day. By the end of the week, you’ll be amazed with what you accomplish.

Related Posts:

1. Demand Studios Work Challenge: June 21, 2010

In a previous post 10 Practical Ways to Make a Living Online, I discussed 10 of the most common ways to make online income. However, we’ve gotten some really good feedback, so I’ve decided to expand on the topic a little further by listing 7 more ways you can make a living online. I hope you enjoy!

1. Making eBooks

eBooks have become increasingly popular on the Internet, mainly because buyers are able to read the eBook immediately after purchasing it. Creating an eBook also doesn’t require as much hassle as publishing an actual book. Most writing applications, like Microsoft Word or Microsoft Office allows you to convert regular text files into PDF format for eBook publishing. You will need the full version of Adobe Acrobat installed, though, before you can convert the file.

Bloggers and freelance writers everywhere are creating quality eBooks and making thousands of dollars in eBook sales. If you have a unique writing style or know a topic very well, creating an eBook might be right for you. Read Ed Zivkovic’s guide on how to create an eBook for more details.

2. Consulting

If you know a lot about a certain area or subject, you should consider offering your own consulting services. The job of a consultant is to work closely with clients, giving advice to help them with a particular project or skill. Successful consultants have a keen eye for finding problems and helping their clients solve them. As a consultant, you’ll need to market yourself well in order to find clients for your consulting business to make a living online.

Many copywriters offer consulting on the side to go along with their other services. However, you don’t have to be a copywriter to get into consulting. Read more about consulting and what to expect on the Reference for Business website.

3. Writing Books

Ever dream about being a bestselling author? Now is your chance! There are many writers who put book writing aside for whatever reason and swear that they’ll write at least one book in their lifetime. Guess what? They never do. Instead of putting it off, start writing that book. Books can bring in a fabulous residual income and, even if you didn’t want to write books full-time, making money year after year from doing nothing is a pretty good deal. The money can also save you in tight spots.

Read Shevonne Polastre’s article 6 Ways to Publish Your Own Book for more inspiration.

4. Taking Pictures

Photographers can make a living online selling their images. What’s even better is that you can continue to sell the same pictures over and over again, without adding new images. In fact, anyone can sell their photos online. You don’t have to be a professional photographer. All you need to have is simply a digital camera and a computer to transfer your photos on.

Read Dean’s article Be a Good Photography Seller for more information on selling photos online.

5. Selling Art

Have a talent for painting brilliant masterpieces? Can you transform a canvass with a single lump of charcoal? You should consider making a living online with your art. There are tons of websites that allow you to do this. Etsy, for example, is an online store that allows visitors to sell their handmade items. If you are unsure of pricing, you can also always browse the art of other people and see what they’re pricing their work for.

For more information on selling your art online, check out the article Selling Art Online: Information on Where (and How) to Sell Art on the Internet on Emptyeasy.com.

6. Making iPhone Apps

Creating iPhone applications is a fabulous side income for programmers and, if the app is successful, can net in thousands of dollars of online income. However, you never know whether an iPhone app will become successful or not until it’s released. Some apps make extraordinary amounts of money and some make nil.

You don’t have to be a programmer to create an iPhone app. You can simply share an idea with a programmer and net in part of the profit once the app is created. How to Create Your First iPhone Application by Jen Gordon is a must-read for individuals interested in the process and looking for an informative guide.

7. Auctioning Items

The most popular bidding website is eBay. In fact, eBay started out as purely an auction website, though now visitors can buy items at a set price. Many people prefer this method of earning online income because they can just buy an item for a low price and resell it at a higher price. Auction sites can also be very lucrative, as you never know what the highest bid will be.

eBay isn’t the only auction site around. There are others all over the Internet for a variety of items. J.D. Roth offers a fabulous guide about auctioning items for sale on his blog Get Rich Slowly.

Related Posts:

1. 10 Practical Ways to Make a Living Online

Photo by Sarah (flickr)

Could entrepreneurs really be taking over the economy? This was one question Amy Cosper, Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, posted in the December 2009 issue of the publication. Do we now live in an age where entrepreneurs rule the economy?

Entrepreneurs most certainly rule the Internet. Today, millions of people are establishing themselves and their businesses online. They don’t have a choice. Lots of people were hit hard with lay offs in 2008, as companies had to downsize just to stay afloat. So, people began becoming more independent and sought out ways to make a living online, after it was clear that companies wouldn’t be hiring them. Many people chose an entrepreneur lifestyle; it’s easy to see why. After all, why wouldn’t they? They were their own bosses now. They controlled how much money they made and how many hours they worked. They controlled their future.

Now you can too.

This guide is meant to be a resource to help you make a living online. A simple list of ideas or suggestions to help you achieve your online goals, if you will, that will point you on to the right path. Test them, practice them or devote your time to them. You can control your own future. And what better way to do that than online?

10 Practical Ways to Make a Living Online

1. Copywriting

There are thousands of entrepreneurs earning online income through copywriting. Copywriting is just any form of copy (Ex: an article, brochure, ad) written by a professional freelance writer at a set fee. Writing copy is a very lucrative profession and requires incredible amounts of work. However, with enough experience, you can easily make over $100,000 a year.

Copywriters can literally write about anything, though they usually specialize in a certain market or service. This is because companies like to hire copywriters who are experienced in their type of field. Tons of books have been dedicated to the subject of copywriting and you can easily find some on Amazon. Popular, well-known, books include Start & Run a Copywriting Business by Steve Slaunwhite, The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman, Secrets of a Freelance Writer by Robert Bly and The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert Bly. For further information about copywriting, visit Copyblogger.

2. Blogging

Almost everyone has blogged at one point in their lives. Many people are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year blogging. Look at Darren Rowse of ProBlogger for example. He’s able to make a living online with just the money he’s making from blogging. Of course, blogging takes hard work in order to be successful.

You can make money in a variety of ways with your blog, ranging from selling ad space to selling eBooks. You also don’t even have to be a professional freelance writer. You just have to know the subject you’re writing about. For more information about blogging and advice to get you started, browse the ever popular blog ProBlogger.

3. Graphic Designing

Do you like dabbling with Inkscape or Photoshop and making intriguing designs? Graphic design may be your next big money-maker. Simply set up an online portfolio displaying your samples and offer your graphic design services. You can also make money selling WordPress or forum themes if you’re familiar with those platforms.

Graphic designing can even be used as a fun hobby to supplement other sources of income. If you didn’t want to make graphic designing a business, you can also just sell your work on a variety of websites that accept creative logos and themes. Visit How to Earn Money As A Graphic Designer for additional ideas on where to sell your designs.

4. Writing Web Content

There are many websites on the Internet that pay freelance writers to write content for them. Popular websites include Associated Content, Demand Studios, Constant Content and Helium. There are tons of others as well.

Many content websites pay writers residual income or continuous payments over a long period of time, so that writers can get the most out of their articles. However, there are some websites that pay writers upfront or one time payments. Find out more about web content in the article Exploring Web Content and Web Content Sites. Tons of freelance writers are making a living online with their web content.

5. Inventing

Do you like to solve problems? Are you an incredible thinker? Invent something useful and sell it online for a decent profit. You don’t even have to manufacture the product. In fact, you don’t even have to be within 20 miles of the product in order to make a living online. Simply give someone else your product idea (the manufacturer, for example), have them do all the work and then reap a percentage of the profits!

You will need to research competition and trends, however, before you start forming ideas. Tamara Monosoff wrote a terrific article on how to position and sell your invention. I also suggest reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss for a more detailed guide.

6. Programming

Anyone with the motivation can become a programmer. However, the journey may be rough, and it will require hours of study in order to familiarize yourself with the different languages and code. Those who know how to program have endless money-making opportunities ahead of them, ranging from selling applications to checking the security of websites. You should consider investing in programming books, as there will be many languages you should be familiar with (C++, Java, Visual Basic and so on). You can also specialize in one or two languages.

To get started, browse the W3Schools.com website.

7. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing refers to when someone, usually a business owner or webmaster, recruits referrals to specific sites or networks in return for a reward. The reward can be money or a gift, though money is rewarded most often.

When people talk about affiliate marketing, they generally refer to affiliate networks like Commission Junction or ClickBank. Commission Junction and ClickBank may be popular affiliate networks, but they aren’t the only affiliate networks around. Not many people know that affiliate marketing encompasses a wide variety of networks, like freebie websites.

Affiliate marketing is a broad term and can refer to any website that you refer others to for profit. Because the term is so broad, many people can use affiliate marketing and make a living online. Tons of websites have an affiliate program. Take a look around. Have you ever hosted a website? Your hosting company probably has an affiliate program. Have you ever bought anything online? That site almost definitely has an affiliate program. There’s dozens of sites you can use for affiliate marketing. Darren Rowse describes affiliate marketing nicely on his What is Affiliate Marketing? article.

8. Selling Niche Websites

Do you like to optimize websites for search engines? There are tons of webmasters that will buy websites that are already getting traffic. For some people, starting a website from scratch is hard work. They don’t want to deal with that hassle. There are even auction sites that attract visitors interested in buying niche websites and will allow you to list your niche site for sale. Flippa is a popular website where people can auction off their niche websites to the highest bidder. Some people even earn over $13,000 for one niche website with Flippa!

Before listing your niche website for sale, you’ll need to know the basics of switching domain names and hosting servers so that you can transfer the website on to the buyer. Read the domain name transfer tutorial and the WordPress server switch tutorial before you get started.

9. Investing

Investing is a risky business, but it can also be a profitable one if you know what you’re doing. There are different forms of investing, ranging from real estate to Forex investing. Whichever form of investing you choose to take part in, you’ll need to do some heavy research in the area to reduce any risks.

Though investing is risky, there are many people who are able to live a comfortable life solely from the money earned from investing. The Investing 101 course will teach you a great deal of what you need to know about investing before you get started. You should also do additional research to increase your earning potential.

10. Creating Online Courses

You can make a living online just by hosting online courses and sharing your expertise, especially if you already have a Web presence. Many online users are eager to spend money to learn new skills. If you’re a professional in your area of expertise, people will want to learn from you. You can also charge as much as $300 or more per course (per person, mind you) if you are exceptionally well known.

Bloggers especially find online courses to have great money potential if used alongside their blogs. Their blogs also help build their brand and authority, so more people want to learn from them. Best Universities offers a wealth of online course materials geared to help you get started to make a living online.

Related Posts:

1. 7 More Practical Ways to Make a Living Online
2. Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 9, 2010

I’ve gotten some work done for Demand Studios and my overall Demand Studios score is rising at an incredible speed. It seems that the Secrets to Making Money with Demand Studios eBook by Kent Ninomiya paid for itself. Rereading the Why Your Overview Matters (And How to Make it Good) article on the Demand Studios blog has also definitely helped to boost my grammar score, especially for this month. However, I’m still working to get my article limit increased, so I can’t rest yet.

Since the last post in the Demand Studios Work Challenge, I received 2 rewrites out of 10 published articles. I still need to rewrite the 2 articles, however, so they haven’t been re-submitted yet. Compared to the last scorecard copy, I gained 0.02 points in grammar and 0.01 in research. Looking at the bars, I managed to publish at least one article that was rated 5 stars in research, since the green bar is over the 4 point line. My grammar bar for this month is almost at the 4 point line, so as long as I do so well, I should receive a score of 4 on both grammar and research soon!

On a side note, I’m going to lower my overall goal of maintaining a score of 4.5, since that would be too difficult to achieve at this moment.

Ultimate Demand Studios Work Goals

• Maintain a score of 4.0 or higher in Grammar and Research on the Scorecard (now at 3.4 – 3.7).
• Reach an assignment limit of 35 or greater (now at an assignment limit of 10).
• Finish articles on topics of expertise in less than 30 minutes without doing rewrites.
• Receive my first special assignment.

Demand Studios Work Goals for the Month

• Maintain a score of 3.7 or higher on the Scorecard (now at 3.4 – 3.7).
• Receive less than 10 rewrites from copy editors (3 rewrites this month).
• Write at least 1 articles a day, minus weekends.

Progress

• Demand Studios Work Challenge – Introduction
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 28, 2010
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 30, 2010
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 9, 2010
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 21, 2010

Related Posts:

1. Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 30, 2010
2. Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 9, 2010
3. Demand Studios Work Challenge

I haven’t updated you all on the Demand Studios Work Challenge for a while, since I’ve been busily going through books and planning out my copywriting career. The books I’m mainly referring to are The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Commercial Freelancer in Six Months or Less by Peter Bowerman, Start & Run a Copywriting Business by Steve Slaunwhite, Secrets of a Freelance Writer, Third Edition: How to Make $100,000 a Year or More by Robert Bly, and The Wealthy Freelancer: 12 Secrets to a Great Income and an Enviable Lifestyle by Steve Slaunwhite, Pete Savage, and Ed Gandia. I’ll be talking more about these books later on as I get started in my copywriting business. As I’m just getting started, I’ve been devoting most of my time to books and my portfolio.

Since the days have become a little less hectic, I’m able to continue blogging. However, I’ve been writing less frequently for Demand Studios because I’ve made my copywriting business my first priority. From here on I’m only going to write one or two articles a day as I continue the Demand Studios Work Challenge.

Since I last updated this blog on my Demand Studios progress, my scores haven’t changed much. I received 10 approved rewrites and 14 approved no rewrites last month, with no additional rejections. This month I only wrote 3 articles so far, with one approved without a rewrite, another approved with a rewrite, and another article abandoned because the copy editor asked to rewrite the entire article due to a disagreement (and I wasn’t about to do that again and risk a rejection).

As far as my scorecard is concerned, I noticed that I’m receiving a constant score of 3 for grammar and a score ranging from 3 to 4 for research. Since I’m trying to raise that grammar score to 4, I did a lot of analyzing and reading about what could be preventing my score from increasing. I like to compare my revisions in the “Published Work” section to see what copy editors took out or edited. I think the main thing that’s killing my score is my complex sentences. I’m going to try to write more simple sentences to see if that does the trick. My overviews might also be lacking, since I often have trouble creating compelling ones. Though I read this article before, I decided to give Why Your Overview Matters (And How to Make it Good) another look. Once that was done, I realized my overviews didn’t exactly start with catchy phrases or follow catchy phrases with interesting facts. I’ll spend more time on my overviews to see if it makes a difference in my grammar score.

I noticed that, as long as I cite at least 2 or 3 sources in my article body, I maintain a steady 4 as my research score. Going through the Content Rating Checklist in the Training Camp section of the Resource Center, I might be able to increase that 4 to a 5 on my scorecard just by working on creating a compelling overview and making each step as informative as I can, while continuing to cite sources. I’ll do a few tests to see how it goes.

Ultimate Demand Studios Work Goals

• Maintain a score of 4.5 or higher in Grammar and Research on the Scorecard (now at 3.2 – 3.6).
• Reach an assignment limit of 35 or greater (now at an assignment limit of 10).
• Finish articles on topics of expertise in less than 30 minutes without doing rewrites.
• Receive my first special assignment.

Demand Studios Work Goals for the Month

• Maintain a score of 3.7 or higher on the Scorecard (now at 3.2 – 3.6).
• Receive less than 10 rewrites from copy editors (1 rewrite this month).
• Write at least 1 articles a day, minus weekends.

Progress

• Demand Studios Work Challenge – Introduction
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 28, 2010
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 30, 2010
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 9, 2010
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 21, 2010

*This post has some affiliate links distributed in the content. Read more about them on the Disclosure page.

Related Posts:

1. Demand Studios Work Challenge: June 21, 2010
2. Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 30, 2010
3. Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 28, 2010

Today has been a very good week for me, considering how much work I’ve gotten done for Demand Studios and the improvement I’ve made with my Demand Studios performance. While my grammar score has remained the same (even though the bar for this month has been increasing slightly), my research score is increasing rapidly. In fact, I passed my goal of 3.5 with my research score by hitting the 3.6 mark. Pretty soon, I should have a score of 4.0. Hopefully my grammar score soon follows suit.

Moreover, the number of rewrites I’m receiving has decreased a great deal since my last Demand Studios Work Challenge update. Since then, I only had to do 2 rewrites. On the last two days, 7 articles went through without having to be rewritten. This is definitely a huge improvement for me and one I hope to keep up.

Ultimate Demand Studios Work Goals

• Maintain a score of 4.5 or higher in Grammar and Research on the Scorecard (now at 3.2 – 3.6).
• Reach an assignment limit of 35 or greater (now at an assignment limit of 10).
• Finish articles on topics of expertise in less than 30 minutes without doing rewrites.
• Receive my first special assignment.

Demand Studios Work Goals for the Rest of this Month

• Maintain a score of 3.5 or higher on the Scorecard (now at 3.2 – 3.6).
• Receive less than 10 rewrites from copy editors (8 rewrites this month).
• Write 7 articles a day, minus weekends.

Progress

• Demand Studios Work Challenge – Introduction
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 28, 2010
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 30, 2010
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 9, 2010
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 21, 2010

Related Posts:

1. Demand Studios Work Challenge: June 21, 2010
2. Demand Studios Work Challenge
3. Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 9, 2010

As I mentioned in my introduction eHow Experiment post, I’ll be editing and improving 4 eHow articles a day in order to average $3 per article and make $339 or more per month for 113 articles. I plan to do this through maintaining a keyword density of 2-3% and using backlinking strategies.

My earnings on eHow per month have been steadily rising. In January 2010, I made $52.08 for the month. Every month after that, I made $57.85, $63.54, and $71.33. This month, with two days left until June, I’ve earned $78.58 so far. I should reach $80 by the end of the month. However, even $80 only gives me $0.70 per article a month. These earnings are pitifully low compared to what I should be earning according to Maria O’Brien’s eBook How to Earn Passive Income at eHow. So, I’m taking the initiative and stepping it up a notch.

eHow Article Results

In the past two days, I’ve worked on 8 articles: How to Stop Being a Junk Food Junkie, How to Stop Nail Biting Successfully, How to Finally Grow Long Nails, How to Cure Adult Acne Forever, How to Prevent Leukonychia Spots on Nails, How to Make College Friends, How to Make Chocolate Covered Strawberries Successfully, and How to Sue a Telemarketer.

So far only 3 articles out of the above 8 are ranking well on search engines. How to Stop Being a Junk Food Junkie has the first listing for “junk food junkie,” first listing for “eating junk food,” and fifth listing for “junk food.” With some backlinking, I hope to boost the listing for “junk food” up to the third spot.

How to Prevent Leukonychia Spots on Nails is listed third on the first page of Google with “leukonychia spots” but is on the second page with “leukonychia.” So, I need to backlink this article a little bit more than my junk food article.

How to Sue a Telemarketer is the last listing on the first page of Google for “sue a telemarketer” but no where to be found for “telemarketer,” so this article needs even more backlinking than the first two articles.

How to Stop Nail Biting Successfully, How to Finally Grow Long Nails, How to Cure Adult Acne Forever, How to Make College Friends, and How to Make Chocolate Covered Strawberries Successfully all need to be backlinked in order to get to the first page of Google for their keywords. I plan to backlink them a little on this blog, Yahoo Answers, forums, and other content websites. I’ll fill you in on their improvements, as well as the statuses of the eHow articles I’ll be working on for the next two days.

Progress

• eHow Experiment: May 27, 2010
• eHow Experiment: May 29, 2010
• eHow Experiment: May 31, 2010

Post Your Input

• Are your eHow articles performing well?
• What have you been doing to increase their search engine ranking?

*This post has some affiliate links distributed in the content. Read more about them on the Disclosure page.

Related Posts:

1. eHow Experiment – May 31, 2010
2. eHow Experiment: Keyword Optimization & Backlinking Strategies
3. eHow Writing Platform Switch: Good or Bad?

Yesterday I had two scares. The first scare was that an article was flagged for plagiarism. The second scare was that another article was rejected.

I had written an article “How to Register a New Business Online” under the impression that it meant something along the lines of “How to Register a Domain and Start a Business.” Now, I realize that my interpretation was wrong, and the title actually meant how one would register their business online with a Secretary of State office and obtain the required licenses and permits to keep the business legal. So, the article was sent back by a copy editor with the following message:

May 26, 2010 – I think that the article does not fir the title. If this article is supposed to be about registering a domain name for a new online business, please focus on that. You have some information on launching an online business, and some info on keyword phrases, etc., but that’s gets away from the focus — how to register a business online.

My interpretation of this title is how a person with a new business can go online to register that business with her state’s Secretary of State’s office, or Department of State in some states. I don;t know if you had guidlance form the editorial team, but either way, this article needs to be refocused on the title. Thank you!

Yes, typos were all there. Apparently the copy editor was in too much of a hurry when writing the message to proofread. Anyway, since I had to rewrite the whole article over again, I used what I already wrote for a new article titled “How to Start Up a Business Website & Domains,” since the information fit that title perfectly. I used this information while “How to Register a New Business Online” was still in rewrite phase, so my second article (How to Start Up a Business Website & Domains) was flagged for plagiarism, and I had to go through the grueling appeal process. When I first got that plagiarism letter, I remember first the feeling of shock and then the feeling of being semi-relieved as the shock slowly ebbed away once I realized what probably happened (that I copied previous information from another article in need of a complete rewrite, but still under the rewrite status, that I didn’t get the chance to rewrite before using the information I intended to erase). I’m still waiting for the flagged article to be cleared. I’ll inform you once it is. Find out whether my flagged article was cleared or not in my new update.

I responded to the copy editor of the first article (the one about registering a business online), after rewriting the entire article again (taking me some time to research the topic), with:

May 27, 2010 – Thanks for your feedback! I wrote a whole new article on how to register a business according to your point of view.

All I had to do was wait for the copy editor to approve my rewrite and the flag to come off of my other article. Then everything would be taken care of. However, the copy editor did not approve the rewrite and actually rejected it. I almost cried. He/she responded with this message:

Thank you for the go at a rewrite. You found some useful resources and references, and the article is more focused now. However, there are some areas where I would have some questions and comments, and I think some more info would have to be added. If this was the first look, I think we could get things done on a rewrite, but DS only lets us have one chance to re-do an article. Thank you for refocusing and reworking it, but I’m afreaid I’m going to have to reject it this time.
In future articles, please keep in mind a tight focus on the title, and please use specific examples to support your steps. Again, thank you for the effort, and good luck on your next article!

Again, spelling errors were left untouched in the message. I spent so much work reworking the article and writing a completely new article from scratch, citing information from references and so on. The copy I sent for approval was perfectly done and informative, or so I thought. The copy editor then continued to point out errors in each step, minor errors for most of them.

That day I had gotten an article rejected and another article flagged for plagiarism. Strangely enough, both articles were connected. I felt as though the ceiling was crashing down on me, slowly crushing me under the weight. I had never before received a rejected or flagged article from Demand Studios and, to happen on the same day, it hit me hard. I felt like giving up altogether. During the time, I also had personal issues that only strengthened the impact.

I sat frozen in the chair for a few minutes just contemplating, until I finally decided to give myself a break from writing. I went to the library for a few hours and that helped relieve my stress. By the time I got back home, I was able to go right back on schedule, finish writing the 7 Demand Studios articles, finish editing 4 eHow articles, and work on my fiction novel.

As for my progress on Demand Studios, it’s improving rapidly.

Compared to the last Demand Studios Challenge image that I posted, both my grammar and my research scores increased. Grammar increased from 3.1 to 3.2 and research increased from 3.2 to 3.4. I also received more approvals without rewrites. Out of 8 approved articles, 7 articles went through without having to be rewritten. At this rate, I’ll probably reach my goal of maintaining a 3.5 average grammar and research score by the end of the month.

Ultimate Demand Studios Work Goals

• Maintain a score of 4.5 or higher in Grammar and Research on the Scorecard (now at 3.2 – 3.4).
• Reach an assignment limit of 35 or greater (now at an assignment limit of 10).
• Finish articles on topics of expertise in less than 30 minutes without doing rewrites.
• Receive my first special assignment.

Demand Studios Work Goals for the Rest of this Month

• Maintain a score of 3.5 or higher on the Scorecard (now at 3.2 – 3.4).
• Receive less than 10 rewrites from copy editors.
• Write 7 articles a day, minus weekends.

Progress

• Demand Studios Work Challenge – Introduction
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 28, 2010
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 30, 2010
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 9, 2010
• Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 21, 2010

Post Your Input

• Have you received an article rejection in the past? How did you handle it?
• How has your Demand Studios work improved?

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