This week, I complained about how blogging had me down. I was tired about a lot of things, and I was running out of words to write in my blogs. (I have to write for 10 blogs, mind you) I was frustrated, and at the bottom of a huge valley. Then the valley was flooded with opportunity. Not just one paid post, but 54. That’s right 54 opportunities across 5 blogs (the other five aren’t mature enough for paid blogging yet). I was astonished, dumbfounded. I had a choice to make.

Choice #1: Write like there is no tomorrow and complete 54 paid posts, but not just 54 posts, but to write 3 posts for every 1 post that is paid. That’s 162 posts with at least 100 words each across 5 blogs. Not only that, I have pressure of my own accord to make each post somewhat relevant to the blog, while not segregating a lot of my readers at the same time.

Choice #2: Just take a handful of the opportunities and count my blessings.

So what did I do?

I kissed my carpals goodbye and I went to work at writing. I wrote so much in the last few days that I can’t believe that I made it through.

After all that, this morning I checked my email and I was handsomely rewarded for the writing. How much you ask? $270 for a weeks of writing. How many hours? 10. So if you’re counting I was paid 27 dollars an hour to write blog posts. That’s only with one company.

In regards to ads, because my sites are doing a little better than before, I’m actually seeing an increase in advertisers begging to get on the site. Not only that, I’ve been fortunate enough to have MORE paid advertising offers for writing, and the end all?

I was hired this week to “pro-blog” on another site. I will receive a monthly fee that is going to help me buy a sandwich for lunch.

So maybe I speak too soon sometimes. I am not rich, and I put in a lot of time and sacrifice my own health at times to try and earn this extra money to cover all my expenses which are rising as we speak.

How so you ask? Here’s a quick list of new expenses that aren’t exactly based on Luxuries:

• Student Loans: The grace period of my student loans has come to a close. That’s right, I am in debt from school, and the education I received is no longer in demand so I’m not making what they claimed I would make upon graduation. Sure, I’m not the greatest web developer out there, but I’m competent enough to be dangerous. How much dollars are we talking? Well…..my education cost me 68,000 dollars. I didn’t qualify for every loan out there so I paid a lot of the tuition while I was at school, by working 3 jobs and going to school full time. (That in itself is a testament to my heritage as a Mexican) So I ended up paying about 12,000 out of my own pocket so far. So now I owe 42,000 on those student loans from one company. My mom has a loan in her name, but she wants me to pay it, since it’s my school. So I owe a few thousand on that still.
• Rent woes: I heard this morning that since the building manager has been actively trying to improve the conditions of our apartment complex, that they are going to raise the rent to 950 a month. I live in a one bedroom apartment in what seems like a good part of Seattle, right next to the Space Needle and am paying $875, this is by far our biggest expense and it’s stretching the budget as is. If they raise it by that much, I am not going to be able to afford working where I work and blogging, and my wife with a full time job to cover all the bills. At least not at first glance.
• Computer Problems:

My wife’s computer broke the other week. The screen completely snapped off the keyboard. (She has a laptop) So we bought a new one. The old one isn’t salvageable for parts or for anything. It’s a very cheap and old laptop at this stage in the game, and it was primarily used for photo editing and internet. But since it’s crashed and burned, we had to replace it. This may sound like a luxury but it’s not really. It’s really a necessity since my wife is managing a lot of the ebay shipping, half.com shipping, and other variables that need to get done while I’m at work. Work means that I’m on location with my computer. We don’t have 3. We each have 1 laptop.

But is it all worthwhile? The stress of painful wrists, not knowing if the next paycheck is going to be the last one from blogging, or if there will be anymore opportunities in the future? There’s an uncertainty principal to it all and sometimes I can get a little worried, but then things like this happen and I’m able to use what little talent that I have to produce quality content, and get paid for it. That’s all I ever wanted. At this point in my life I want to get paid to write. I’m not the best at it, but I’m prolific enough to produce content for websites that a handful of people want to read…and I do mean a handful…well maybe a finger or two, not the whole hand.

So on this Friday I celebrate the opportunities that God has given me. (I know I just crashed the cart for some of you that may not believe) I am certainly a little more cheerful today, God really comes through when you don’t expect it. I couldn’t have any of this without the constant pressure of literacy that was given to me in Private Christian Education.

Why do I say that? Why must I bring up the fact that it was Christian?

Because I was thrown out of Christian schooling and put into Public School and Public school didn’t care if students were literate. But I had already had 3 years of forceful literacy through the Bible and other harder texts, so when I got to Public School it was a cake walk for me.

I’m rambling now…sorry.