Maddie's Trick

Pleas ignore the double chin and focus on the cutest baby in the world!

Maddie Laughing at Daddy

Spencer really is the best Daddy in the whole world. Maddie just adores him. He can always make her laugh and she loves to fall asleep in his arms as he plays video games.

Keys to a Successful Relationship

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Keys to a Successful relationship

"I'm just no good at relationships!" It was after midnight and I was on the phone with Sarah who had just suffered a very nasty break up. To be honest, I was only half listening because this conversation was almost word for word the same as half a dozen late night phone calls over the years. I could almost mouth the phrase... 

click here to read more

PS names have been changed to protect the innocent on this one.

Qualities to look for in a neighborhood

This article was #1 for a while, but now it is #2 out of 85

Qualities to Look for in a Neighborhood

Choosing the right neighborhood to live in is not unlike choosing a future spouse. Of course you need to feel a physical attraction, but there is much more to living happily ever after than just good looks. Don't just rely on a few short visits with the Realtor in tow to know if a neighborhood is the right fit for you and your family. Instead, investigate it thoroughly. Here are some things you may want to look at before making one of the biggest commitments of your life.

Crime
You need to feel safe in your home, so it is important to know the crime rate of the neighborhood you are looking at.  To read more click here.

My 4 Step Plan to Take Over the World!

I haven't posted much on my blog in a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been writing. As I mentioned before, I am really hoping to transition to freelance writing so that I can be at home with Maddie.

This is my four step plan

Step 1.  Build an income stream, improve my writing and build up a portfolio by writing for several entry level writing websites.

Step 2.  Once I have a portfolio built up, I will find freelance writing jobs on sites like elance.com.  This is a site that lists writing projects that writers can bid on.

Step 3.  Once I have several freelance jobs completed, I hope to get hired as a regular freelance writer for a company. That way I will have a regular income stream.

Step 4.  Either quit teaching or move to a part time position.

I am having an great time getting back into writing.  Right now I have about 23 articles written on ehow.com and 20 written on helium.com.  I have a few on Bukisa, but I don't think I am going to continue with that site.  I don't think it has as great potential as the first two.

My articles on ehow are pretty basic, but they tend to earn a steady amount of money and they are very easy to write.  Oddly enough, my best earner is on how to program a Uverse remote control (thank you Spencer for the info).

My Helium articles are the ones I am the most proud of.  Helium has a different model than ehow.  On Helium, they have set titles to which anyone can write.  Then you are ranked against the other articles in that title.  In order to get your earnings, you have to spend a few minutes each day ranking other people's articles.  It is all done anonymously so that you can't just choose your friends' articles.  You earn a small upfront payment for each article you write as well as a portion of the revenue for the site based on your page views and ad clicks.

Since I am avery competitive person, I enjoy being ranked against other people and trying to improve my articles to be at the top of each title.  I am doing really well right now.  I have written 20 articles and I average at the top 95%.  I really feel that my writing is getting better with each article that I write or revise.

I don't earn that much right now, but the cool thing is that the revenue stream is continuous.  I may earn less than a dollar each month for an article, but I will earn that dollar each month for the next several years or more.  I have written 20 articles this month.  If I can keep that up for the next 10 months, I will have 200 articles and even if each one only earns a dollar, I will be making $200 without doing any additional work.  Of course, this is just an estimate since some articles will earn more, and some will earn less.  That article on that I wrote on Uverse has already earned me $10 this month.  That is an exception, but if I can do that again, I can make some good money doing this.

If you are interested, or want some more info, let me know.  Anyone can sign up for ehow, but I will need to send you an invite for you to get onto helium.com.  I'll post some of my articles in a separate post so you can see what they are like.

Laughter is the best medicine

One of our new favorite pastimes is trying to find ways to make Maddie laugh.  Sometimes we can really get her going.  Sometimes though, we won't be doing anything at all, and she will look over at us and start cracking up.  It is really adorable.  This video is of my brother-in-law, Scott, making Maddie laugh.