My 1st Month as a Paid & Published Writer

Today officially marks my first full month of writing for Yahoo's Contributor Network. I started the project in the hopes of someday getting my name out there. I also started it simply because it sounded fun (after all that's why I write, it's my passion). And I started it to give me something to work toward that is much smaller than the often-overwhelming task of working on my novel.

Completing articles, getting pageviews, taking assignments...those are all small victories I can achieve in just a week or even a day. It makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere. And while I love my big projects and refuse to give up on them, I need something small along the way. It's like floating down a river in a canoe all by yourself. The finish line you're searching for could be days or weeks away, but if you didn't hit the occasional checkpoint you'd drive yourself mad, feeling like you're going nowhere.

My goal for the first month of writing for YCN was to write what I could, as often as I could (while still ensuring quality, not just quantity) and to reach 1,000 pageviews. I felt like I could achieve that, though I expected the pageviews to be a little difficult. I was really going to have to do some self-promotion there. (Speaking of self-promotion, I'm going to link my profile for anyone interested.)

Yet now, looking back on my first month, I am in complete and utter awe of the achievements I've reached. I never dreamt so much could happen so fast. While I don't "expect" that it will always be this way, that I've done this in just 30 short days excites me beyond belief. It makes me wonder just what I can really achieve.

1) We'll start with pageviews since that was my original goal. I hoped and strived to reach 1,000. There was one day I even got 81 page views just in that day. I couldn't believe it! Then I had a hit article entitled Sports Meltdowns: When Pro Talent Meets Amateur Behavior that suddenly made my page views jump. And I don't mean that I was getting 100 or 200 page views then, though I would have been thrilled beyond belief with just that. No, I was getting thousands. Per day. Granted I know people love to read about stupid things other people have done, especially famous other people, but thousands? It took me about 3 days to even realize where this article was posted to receive so much attention. That was my next shock.

2) When you go to the Associated Content home page, it looks much like any other news home page. You have your front page articles, then you have 11 main categories with subcategories under each. It's a quick and easy way to get noticed if you're lucky. I got lucky. My sports article became the #1 featured article of AC's Sports page for just over a week. It was finally taken down today. But just before someone else received the coveted sports spot....I received the #1 featured article spot on the Creative Writing page...another one of the top 11 categories. How to Write a Sestina, which I've posted on this blog before, took off. One of the biggest reasons? One of the assignments released to contributors linked back to my article as the "how to" for completing the assignment. I felt honored. I truly can't even put into words how excited I was to see that.

3) I broke out of being published only on Associated Content. My sports article found its way to Yahoo! News and I currently have two local articles published on Yahoo! Sports with a more generic one I just submitted tonight for the same. It really is like everything is falling into place at just the right time.

My 1,000 page view goal was dwarfed in this month. The final count as of last night was 50,575 page views on Associated Content with 275 views on Yahoo! News and I'm not sure how many on Yahoo! Sports (that site has not updated reports for me yet).

Writing on Yahoo is a joy. I get to write about all sorts of topics and things that I love. I'm allowed to turn everyday articles full of facts into fun articles with a bit of whimsy tossed in for good measure. I get to achieve something every time I have an article published. And now that I'm finally participating in forums, I'm meeting some other pretty amazing authors as well.

So to sum it up...this month has been magical and I fully encourage anyone interested to trying writing for Yahoo. Work as little or as much as you want. Write what you want. Be what you want. I'm only one month in and I'm not about to give up on this experience any time soon.

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C