The signing up process at You Say Too - an Adsense Revenue Sharing site

If anyone has read the about me on this blog, they'll see that I'm keen to make money blogging - even if takes me a really long time, as I can only spend time on it inbetween doing my other work - my work, along with my boyfriend Tony, is freelance web design and writing, from home. A lot of my paid writing or Internet research jobs come from oDesk, and that's cool, as I can work for anyone in the world. Most of my web designing jobs are local, here in East London - although have designed a few sites for people in other towns of South Africa too, mostly communicating via email. Have even helped redesign a site for an International client via oDesk, but, generally, the web design section of my work at home job is for local clients. The writing is from online efforts and earning from Google Adsense, or, as said already, from getting writing jobs on oDesk.

I haven't posted any new blog posts here in a while as I have been busy exploring some online income opportunities. I think I plan to discuss many of them on this blog, or on some of my other blogs, to help others who are thinking of doing the same, or who are wanting some tips, advice, reviews, or more information on the different extra income opportunities I come across. One of these is You Say Too.

As I write this I'm still sort of in the process of signing up - I find the site incredibly slow - but these are my views so far, and obviously probably related mostly to the sign up process:

By following some simple instructions on You Say Too you can feed your Blogger blog posts to the site. Be patient with the site if you find it slow too (I've just checked and it seems my blog (this one) is now there.) - as You Say Too seems a good place to earn a little extra income from the Adsense ads on the site.

If you have a Google Adsense account, you will earn 50% of the revenue that You Say Too makes. To get your posts or blogs on You Say Too seen more, get involved in the community there, make new friends, don't go against any of the TOS (terms of service/terms and conditions/rules), and update your main blog regularly. If you don't have a blog, you can make blog posts directly on the site - of course, remember to get some links to these blog posts by leaving the links to them on social sites or social bookmarking sites - or in other articles you have elsewhere on the Internet.

Now, if you couldn't care less about making some extra income for yourself, but you do care about charities trying to help the world, and you do have a blog you post to regularly, then submit your blog to You Say Too anyway, as part of the revenue from advertising on the site will then go to the charity of your choice instead of to you. You won't even have to join Google Adsense if you don't yet have an account there, as You Say Too will handle the earnings you would have earned through their own Adsense account and will donate it to the charity of your choice. I'm hardly signed up there, so haven't yet noticed if you are able to see on your dashboard how much you have earned that is donated to a charity, but I do suspect that you would be able to check.

Of course if you're pretty much struggling along yourself, then don't feel bad to rather choose that the earnings come to you instead of to a charity - as long as when you make it big one day, through your online activities, you remember to help out those less fortunate than yourself - people, animals, causes.

I've branched off the main topic here, so back to it - the signing up process:

Put up with the slow site (if it really is slow in general and not just me - but it seems much slower than other sites I've joined) as perhaps it will improve, and, besides, I've read some good reviews on You Say Too, on other sites.

Choose a user name and password - the user name space allowance is somewhat small - I usually add teresaschultz or Teresa Schultz as my user name, but could only fit in TeresaS on You Say Too.

Add your Wordpress.com or Blogger blog: type in the URL of your blog and the RSS feed. For Blogger the feed comes up automatically after typing in the URL - well mine did.

Add a code to your blog. Simply copy the coding that comes up and add a third party html gadget to your gadgets on your Blogger (not sure what the steps are for other blogging platforms.)

I first added it as a text gadget, as this is how I usually add buttons to my blogs (like the South African blog aggregator myScoop button), but it either didn't take immediately, or didn't work at all. Everything seems fine now that I started all over again (the adding the blog step) and added a third party html gadget instead.

There also seems to be a further exposure opportunity involving possibly placing a widget or box or advert on your site, that displays other people's blog posts (but theirs will display yours too) so, sort of a swopping and helping out set up - I will be checking this out too.

So, that's it for now about yousaytoo - updates and more extra income news, tips and advice coming soon.

There are already some tips and reviews about work at home jobs on my work at home jobs site, if you'd like to check those out too.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

What do we do while the boys are at their art lesson?

When the boys' private art lessons teacher popped out of the art class to the parking area, to quickly get something from her car, we were seated in our/my dad's car, pretty much just sitting there. The car window was down and we greeted. The art teacher remarked that we were funny - referring to that we just sat there in the car waiting an hour and a half, for the boys to finsh their art lesson. We just laughed it off, and didn't go into detail as she was in a hurry to get back to class - and we also didn't want to keep her from teaching the boys!

What we do while waiting for the boys on Friday afternoons is:

Save petrol instead of driving around all over the place in the area;

Save petrol by not coming home to do some work on the computers quickly, which, to us, makes sense, as that would be about R25 petrol spent, and just 20 minutes max on the computers.

We do sometimes go to the shop very close by, or to the garage (also very close by) to put some petrol in the tank, or get some air for the tires.

We read free local newspapers we picked up at the shop, and do the crossword.

We take notes in a notebook for when we do get back to our work at the computers.

We relax, and sometimes almost fall asleep - and why not? - we very often work until after midnight, even when we have to be up at 5.40am the next morning, to get the boys sorted for school.

Although we don't like being away from work for as long as we wait for the boys at their art class (plus we get there about 45 minutes early after picking the boys up from school) I think we're also glad we don't yet have a laptop, as we need some time off from work (we work many hours on weekends too.)

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

Difficult not to get depressed when looking for a job or new clients in SA

It sucks not being able to find a job - one gets so depressed,
and that just makes it worse, trying to get the energy to try do
something about earning an income. We've had a really bad month, and
are not even sure we can pay our rent (living at my parents and we pay
rent) or our adsl/telephone account - which we have to have to be able to
carry on work online. Or if we do, there's no money over for anything else(petrol to get the kids to school and back, food, our web hosting account, still paying the lawyer divorce fees, art fees for the kids etc etc)

But, somehow, we get through. We work hard, and when there's no work,
we work hard at marketing ourselves. Over 2 years ago we started out selling plants on the pavement in front of my parents' home, and took it from there.

One just has to have the will to take control of one's own income -
and this seems to happen more easily when one is pretty desperate -
and learn and discover, that "hey, I can earn a little income for
myself, and, perhaps, it may even grow into something bigger." But
you have to start somewhere, and more important than that, is to
actually just start (doing something.)

We managed to turn around a bad situation, over two years ago, even though it took some time, and although some months are still pretty tough, our good reputation and our portfolio are growing.

We are seeing a new client tomorrow, and are hoping we get the job
(freelance job) to design a site for them. We are also seeing an old
client next week sometime, hopefully, who wants some small changes and
additions to his site we designed a while ago already.

If these clients don't come through for us, then we would:

Sell some plants from home, on the pavement;

Find some old books lying around the house, borrow R30 to pay for a
"stand" at the beachfront fleamarket on Sunday morning, and hope to
sell a little even if we make only R30 plus cover petrol - it's R30
more than we had before.

We have a lot of info on our sites to help people think about what they can do from home, and there is also tons of info on the Internet. And
it's all free. We use this same info when we get stuck for a bit of income, to see us through. It inspires us to think instead of just sit around and get depressed, and do nothing. We wish that people struggling to find work can also realise that they too can work from home. It's not easy, and may take a long time to earn a decent income, but it could grow into a healthy income, and you won't know if you don't try.

Read. Learn. Earn.

We don't have money to give to people who are struggling. We can't
employ anybody who needs work. We're trying to keep our own heads
above water ourselves, but we do like to help people.

Our mission is just to let people know, that if one has the right
attitude, one can work for themselves, but without the will to do it,
it won't happen.

We saw a woman walking in the streets the other day, going to offices
or anywhere really with a basket of koeksisters she had made, we drove
past her in the street, stopped and bought a packet for R10 - we
didn't feel like koeksisters and gave them to my dad, but we admired
that she was making the effort to work.

It's tough. It's not easy. BUT YOU CAN DO IT.

To people struggling:
Go through some articles on our sites, slowly, and carefully, and use the information, or inspiration they give you, and you'll be fine.

Believe that you will be fine. Just do something!

Here are some articles we think are the more important ones on our sites, but, of course, just browse the Internet and learn all you can about what you can do from home:

OVER 250 WORK FROM HOME IDEAS

YOU'RE SO DESPERATE FOR MONEY THAT YOU'RE READING THIS ON SOMEBODY ELSE'S COMPUTER

DON'T SPEND FOREVER TRYING TO FIND WORK. JUST WORK.

USING YOUR KITCHEN TO WORK FROM HOME

USING A FLEA MARKET TO SELL A PRODUCT OR PROMOTE A SERVICE

WE HAVE MONEY TO LAST ABOUT 4 DAYS

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

We have money to last about 4 days

and then no more unless some work comes in - this is how it goes with our freelance work from home business - we were kinda relying on a little article appearing in a local free weekly delivered to homes today to give us a bit of exposure, but no article yet. Perhaps next week.

It's depressing, but not the end of the world. It just means we should have spent less time (mostly me - Tony is working on a new SA Auction site for a client) trying to improve our sites in case a few locals popped onto them to take a look (after reading the article), and should have spent more time on looking for more work. We've had a few okay months since starting to work from home in February 2008, but quite a few pretty bad months too - this month is one of the not so hot ones. Even our next Adsense cheque is not quite yet due, and even then, it takes about 7 weeks before it arrives in the post.

Back to oDesk, I guess, for now. oDesk is a freelance site where all sorts of work can be done, or people (Internationally) looking for freelance workers can hire them. I've been a member there for about a year now - take a look at my profile there - and have picked up some fun and interesting little freelance jobs - some not so little - we did work for a Florida US personal injury lawyer, recently, that lasted over 4 months and paid well.

So, how do we survive at times like this (it's happened before) - while waiting for, or trying to get the next client?

As a divorced mom of two boys, the children get a maintenance at the end of each month (about half of what their living expenses are when they're with me, their primary custodian - they're with me 18 nights in a 28 day period) This amount pretty much immediately goes on our telephone and ADSL account, and our rent at my parents, where we live. Those are two biggies that need taken care of immediately each month. There's a little already set aside, in a fixed savings, for the boys' future, which is "off limits" and doesn't even exist in my mind. That's not being touched. It's for the boys - and actually still needs to be so badly added to.

Another biggie is petrol. It's a 22 minute drive to school, but at least it's not all one big monthly cost, and we take it as it comes.

Back to oDesk - if we pick up a little job there, that we can manage, say, today, and hope the "oDesk buyer" pays today too, we can only access our earnings 6 days later. So, if we have money for only 4 days, what do we do for the inbetween 2 or 3 days, before accessing oDesk earnings?

We make a plan, and this is what all people struggling for an income should do. Make a plan.

We can:
market ourselves silly and sleep just 4 hours a night, to get a local client before the 4 days are up;
if 4 days go by and no local client, then we skimp and save and cut all we can, to get through the next 2 or 3 days while waiting for an oDesk payment;
although we don't like to borrow money from friends in case we struggle to pay it back, there is a friend or two who could and would help us out for a day or two - the boys even have a little birthday money over they wouldn't mind helping us out with for a day or two - but this is pretty much a last resort (they will tease they want interest when we pay them back, lol!);
other options are to hang a sign on the front wall to sell something we no longer need, or sell a few plants - we pretty much started out selling plants;
pray

And we get by. We make a plan, and get by.

Our reputation of good service is growing, and so is our portfolio.

This article is probably putting people off thinking of quitting their regular job and trying to work from home, and, in a way, that's good. Working from home does not suit everyone, but, at the same time, one should also realise: where there's a will, there's a way.

Other articles on our sites that may be of interest to you:

How Difficult is it to Find a Decent Job in East London, South Africa?

Don’t spend forever trying to find work. Just work.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

I just said to Tony I wish I could just sleep for 5 days

Freelance work can be tough at times, and especially when one's freelance business is still less than 3 years old. When one doesn't work, one doesn't earn. We don't yet charge enough for what we do. We've recently put our prices up, but it's still not enough to afford a holiday once in a while - not even a holiday right at home. We're still growing. But, oh, to just do nothing and sleep sleep sleep as much as we like. I think that five days of doing absolutely nothing and sleeping as much as we like would feel like a 3 week vacation to us.

But we cannot afford to just stop work and do nothing for a few days. And if there is no work for a while, we spend the time marketing or blogging to give ourselves or our sites more exposure to get the next bit of work. Or we apply for jobs on oDesk.

Ok, we have breaks, and since Tony and I are pretty inseperable, we take breaks together:

Taking the boys to school is a break. 44 minutes there and back just for the driving, so with a brief stop at the shops for some essentials, it's about an hour and fifteen minutes break from work.

Fetching the boys from school? Perhaps another hour and fifteen minutes.

We sometimes (perhaps 3 or 4 times a month) pop in at Hemingways to lose some money, have a drink or two, and relax. So, what's that? Perhaps 9 hours a month break?

We don't watch tv - no time for that, and none in our bedroom or office anyway. Ok, so we do Stumble a bit, visit YouTube or FaceBook, but it's not for long.

We will also get out a dvd from time to time - perhaps sometimes we overdo it a bit, like 5 in ten days, but then we might go a month or so before watching another one. Our office is tiny, but there's just enough space behind our two chairs at the two computers (next to each other of course) to take a step or two backwards and plop into two lazyboys there, and watch a dvd on the computer. So, that's ten hours of dvd and perhaps 2 hours of YouTube a month = 12 hours a month. How much time each month do you spend watching tv - or playing computer games?

We will also take time out from work to take the boys to movies during the school holidays - you could say we go to the movies with the boys maybe 9 times a year. If the boys have something on at school, or to do with sport, we take time out to support them.

We also take them to karate two evenings a week, and wait there until it's over, walking our jack russell Gilly about 1 and a half kilometres on the fields - or using the time to pop in at the shops.

Then there's school projects and orals that the boys need guidance with, or learning for exams and we spend time asking them questions.

Oh, and then, of course, making meals, eating, showering, sleeping.

It's all a break from work.

And sleeping. That's a break too.

Sounds like a bit fat moan, doesn't it? Well, I guess it is, when one is feeling so tired, and, often, generally always feeling tired. Being alert, awake, fresh and active takes a lot of energy and I guess our batteries are not being recharged enough.

When associates or friends say "have a good weekend!" we know they mean well, but to tell the truth, a lot of our work gets done on the weekends - when the boys have less homework, when there's no sport or school trips, and when we know we don't have to get up at 5.40 am, so we can sleep a tad later in the mornings (if we're not too far behind with our work). But catching up on sleep one or two nights a week, isn't doing the trick. Our batteries need more recharging than that - and we can't just sleep and sleep, or else work (or marketing it) gets behind!

Well, now that my moan is pretty much over, do I feel better? I guess, somewhat, but, gee, I'm still so tired, and so is Tony. Sometimes we can't remember when we last felt really refreshed. Or when we do remember, we remember that it barely lasted.

With life what it is today, we know there are many people who feel the same as we do, each and every day.

Yes, we're a bit jealous of the people who can take time off work for a few days or weeks (and mostly still get paid while they're not working), but do you know what? - we are going to put up with how tired we feel, we're going to continue being available for the boys, we're going to continue working for ourselves, we're going to continue growing our business, building our portfolio and reputation, and, we're going to make it! Our determination is what keeps us awake.

And one day, whenever that may be, we're going to do nothing for ten days, not five, and sleep all we like, and at the end of that break we'll say: "Well, all that hard work was worth it!"

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010