2/28/2013: End of One Career, Start of Another

Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank

Today was my last day at my part-time job as tech support for the school district.  I am a bit sad as I have grown to love the job and the people I worked with, but I need to think of my family first and foremost.  With as much writing I have been doing lately, I make far more money than the school district can pay.

Starting tomorrow morning, I am officially a career writer.  Although only my personal websites will ever bear my name, I still get paid good money to come up with the content I write.  As I approach 1,000 articles completed, I realized that I should have been a writer my whole life.  I love to write, learn, and enjoy providing content for others to read.  I have stumbled upon a few articles that I’ve wrote for clients posted on other sites and it makes me grin when the comments posted reflect the article in a positive light.  While a different name is on the by line, I gain solace knowing that I created that piece for others to enjoy.

Speaking of writing content, I broke three personal records this pay period for TextBroker.  I wrote more words this week than ever, had the highest income in a week, and surpassed my average pay per hour by $2.  Now that I will be a full-time writer, I will shatter that record starting tomorrow.

As I made the decision to quit, I gained another client who needs articles and I received a bunch of orders from another.  That makes three clients that are sending me work to write.  If this becomes a constant norm, I may find myself so inundated with work that I don’t have time for anything else.  However, making nearly $20 per hour makes up for the loss of time.  You see, $20 an hour in my community is actually quite a bit of money.  I would be able to pay all of the household bills and have a ton of money left over.  That is my ultimate goal – to make the $75k I was making a few years ago with my computer business.

I was hoping to get more writing done for my own websites so they can be bringing in a bit more money, but I don’t know if that is going to happen.  With all of the orders I have been getting, I am going to be lucky to keep up with clientele demand.  Statistically, I should be able to do both.  I just need to focus on getting the orders done before I indulge in things like Day Z and soon Star Craft.  I love my games.

I hope I can exercise restraint, however.  I don’t have the strongest willpower and being in front of my computer for so long will make it difficult not to load up a game, YouTube, or Netflix.  I believe the motivation will come from lack of income if I do.  As I am paid per piece, I need to complete as many orders as I can in a day in order to make money.

My personal goals for March: I want to complete at least 10 articles per day.  This would bring in approximately $86 per day – which is $10 more than what I was making while working for the school district and writing at the same time.  An extra $50 per week for something I love to do isn’t bad, really.  Even if I just double the average hours per day I put in would still make more than $500 per week.  This year, I am averaging 1.87 hours per day, which really sucks.  I had a few bad weeks this year, but this last week I pushed 2.22 hours and made $279.12.  If I could crack out 4.5 hours per day, that would be quite a bit.  Of course, I am going to shoot for 6 – 8 hours 5 days a week.  When I look at how piddly those hours are, I am a bit embarrassed.  In my defense, I do have two daughters under the age of nine that I am raising as well.

So, that is my ultimate goal.  To at least put in five hours tomorrow.  I don’t know if that is going to be realistic as there is no school and the children will be home all day.  I really need an office away from the noise.  I guess we’ll see what the day brings and if I can stay on task.  Currently, I have 14 more orders to do so I will have a busy day.  May the force be with me.

Michael Brockbank
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