I like the spirit of thanksgiving. Where I come from, thanksgiving is not celebrated. It’s not a holiday or a special day. Even though thankfulness is a big part of our faith, there’s no religious, cultural or social event to mark it.

My mum’s spent years telling me that I should be thankful every single day. Mum, I know you’re right, but it’s just not possible! But, remembering to be thankful one day is more than possible.

So keeping with the spirit of the day, I’d like to express my thankfulness for the one thing without which I probably wouldn’t know half of what I know – which isn’t much to begin with but you get my drift.

The thing I’m most thankful for is the Internet. You heard me folks! Without the Internet I probably wouldn’t have gotten interested in writing, I wouldn’t have read about different cultures, wouldn’t have gotten obsessed with world affairs and my horizons would have remained narrow had I not had access to the world wide web to find answers for every and anything I could think of.

Having been born and raised in a country that in its best years was called a ‘developing country’, the Internet became my portal of knowledge. It is the reason I chose the discipline I chose for my Bachelors. It’s responsible for making me a writer and it is also the medium through which I get work.

Most of all, I’m thankful for all the learning opportunities it gives me. From taking online classes to attending conferences – without it I wouldn’t even be a freelancer!

My thanksgiving giveaway: As a thanksgiving gift, I’m going to give 5 working hours free of charge. If you have a project that you want to work on but can’t find the time or the money, I’ll work for you for no charge.

Remember, I’m a writer so the work should have something to do with words. I’m open to all kinds of work. Writing, editing, proofreading, ghost writing etc. Even that of a Virtual Assistant. Be creative, or not. There are lots of possibilities.

If the work requires less than five hours, I’ll take on someone else’s work. The offer is valid till Sunday on a first come first serve basis. Monday I start working the allotted hours!

In my previous post, I talked about how much I made on my first gig. It’s time to spill the beans on how much per article pay I’m getting now and why.

How Much I’m Earning Per Article

For the work I do now I’m being paid $10 per article. Granted, It’s not much better than $5 but it’s still better than it. Even though the going rates for 500 word articles is three times that, as a starting point for me, I’d say its not bad. Am I aiming too low? Definitely. But I’m new, inexperienced and I’m aware of how much I have to learn. My list of things to learn is incredibly long and the learning process not as fast as I’d like. For this amount, I feel some amount of motivation, take initiative and come up with ideas of my own and work hard on an article.

Why I Accepted Low Paying Work

While I agree that $10 is better than $5, I wouldn’t have accepted it if the gig hadn’t come with perks. I get an editor, my name to my work, resources to learn SEO, revenue share, a helpful writer’s community and the chance of writing for different topics if I so choose. For now, these perks are ideal for me. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is at the top of my ‘things to learn’ list.

Will I Accept More Work for Similar Pay?

Not a chance! My rule of thumb for freelancing is that every gig (till I get established) should pay better than the previous one. Unless the offer trumps the one I have now in terms of perks, I won’t be accepting any more work for $10. If I have to write for that amount, I’d rather continue writing here.

As a seasoned freelancer or a new one, do you agree with my reasoning? Share your experience. Disagree? Feel free to tell me why I’m wrong.

$5 – that’s all I wrote my first article for. I had read all there was to read about starting as a freelancer and every freelance blog screamed at me to not sell myself so cheap. They told me I shouldn’t give in to pressure of getting my first gig. That I should hold out for better opportunities and pay.

Trust me – it’s easier said than done. I cracked from sheer impatience and wrote my first article for $5. My PayPal had been set up 3 weeks ago! An empty bank account was mocking me for not having any money to put into it. Hours and hours of job searching with no results. Countless rejections because I had no prior experience. My self esteem was taking a severe beating and my fingers were itching to send in an article in exchange for pay – which is why I accepted the first writing gig that came my way.

I got paid $5 for a 800 word article. But soon after those $5 came in (of which 50 cents were deducted as service charges), I realized I wouldn’t be writing for that client anymore. There was no feeling of accomplishment and no satisfaction. I also didn’t do a good job. Without meaning to, my article reflected the amount that was paid for it. You can chalk it up to the article being my first and beginner’s nervousness but I honestly feel that I would have striven to do a better job of it had the pay been decent.

Its been two month since the $5 article and my PayPal is sitting at $4.50. I got work this month but the pay for that won’t come in till next month. Don’t get your hopes up though! The pay isn’t much better that $5.

Stay tuned to find out how much I’m making per article in my current gig and why I accepted it.

I discovered Windows Live Writer a few months ago and have been publishing the base through it. I wasn’t expecting too much from Microsoft’s desktop blogging application when I first downloaded it, but I was in for a surprise! It’s one of the most comprehensive blogging applications I’ve used.

Seamless Transitioning Between Different Blogs

You can add as many blogs as you want and it let’s you access them with a single click. Save your passwords and you’ll be saved from one more step to hinder the process of publishing your blog.

Supports Other Blogging Platforms

While Live Spaces is the first choice it offers, we can add blogs from Blogger, WordPress, TypePad etc by choosing ‘Other weblog services’. All you have to do is provide the blog URL, username and password of the service and it retrieves all the information on its own to set up your account on WLW.

Plug-ins

Windows Live Writer has the option to add different plug-ins to further enhance the blogging experience. Plug-ins that come with the application can insert hyperlinks, pictures, video, tables, tags and maps. Clicking on ‘Add a Plug-in’ leads to a Windows Live Gallery where there are different choices depending on your needs.

To learn about which plug-ins would be most useful to increase your productivity through WLW, check out ‘10 Must have plug-ins for WLW’.

Navigation

One of the best thing about WLW is the easy navigation.Everything is within sight and easy to understand. Formatting also has the same common keyboard function as that of Microsoft Word and other word processing programs.

Different Viewing Options

What stands out in WLW is the different previewing options. We can view our blog post in normal layout which has the usual white background with the post on it. The Web layout has the general outline of your blog page and the Web preview does a quick scanning of your weblog’s template, downloads the settings and stores it to show a preview of how it would look like when published on your blog. The html code view is also there for people who like to tweak their own code.

Works Offline

Last but not the least, is the option to form blog posts and edit them offline. This option was the show stealer for me. We can even have a web preview while we’re offline since it downloads our blog template when we ran the web preview option while online.

Verdict: Whether you’re new to blogging or an old hand at it, WLW is great for all.

When starting a blog, the primary fear of a blogger is that they won’t have enough to say to keep updating it regularly. I was no different. This fear was the major part of my decision to only update this blog two to three times a week.

Work related blogs or blogs concentrating on a specific topic or niche, come with more responsibility and pressure. Friends don’t count as traffic. You have to plan, edit and proof read posts before publishing them. Then there’s the whole process of marketing your blog. Leaving comments on different blogs trying to entice readers to your own through it. It’s a lengthy and constant process that takes time, planning and lots of patience. (Yes, I realize it’s becoming my mantra but hey, it is true!)

So how do we successfully plan a blog and avoid running out of steam? Before today I would have given a vague answer of making a blog-plan along the lines a small business plan. Had you asked me to lead by example, I would have floundered.

Not anymore however. Ask me that same question and I’d direct you to Blog Energizer. It’s a complete dose of everything your blog needs. While there’s still two days before it launches (Nov 18th), the cool gifts already on offer are very promising!

• You get a buzz topic report that gives ideas about which topics to write about to create buzz on your blog.
• The 14 months Blogging Calendar is filled with cool observances that can lead to posts, contests and discussions.
• The Blogging Planner is extremely simple and very well thought out.
• You also get a report that talks about thinking outside the box and talks about other ways to gain readers and spread the word.
• There is also a report on different and fun activities to generate more traffic for your blog. After reading them, I found them helpful and will definitely be working towards implementing them.

Head over to Blog Energiser, get your gifts and decide for yourself. Don’t forget to sign up for the blog energiser too! I first read about it on the WAHM blog. My first impression of blog energiser is impressive and I plan to follow its development closely.

Tony, this is especially for you in regards to your comment on my previous post. I hope it helps!