Notes From a Publisher: What do you DO for a living?

I ran into someone at the grocery this evening and was asked this question ... again. It seems to come up a lot. Lately, most of my limited income (enough to pay the bills and scrape by - try to catch up from 'the lean years'...) has come from freelance work (writing and other things online). I do make some money from AFP and my other sites, though. My virtual real estate if you will.

If you have seen Becky (my car - bless her heart...), she's ... well, let's just say she's a teeny bit past her prime. The thing is, I can get by with this car for now as I pour all my time, resources and energy into making money online. I know I've promised some of you to write up a post on that, and I will get to it. (I have a website started for it - Make Money Online Marketing...) I also have about a gajillion other projects I'm working on.

Here's the thing I've learned about making money online. You have to build and build - constantly build. It's finally starting to pay off for me. I'm not close to where I want to be, but as I told the owner at Tommy J's the other week - I can't really complain. I'm still scraping by, but I'm doing it. 

Don't get me wrong. Living moment to moment and just getting by on the bills is stressful, but the Lord has blessed me with the ability to be able to write and use that to make money. Either long term (Writing for my own websites) or short term (quick cash to ghost write for other websites.) I've been doing more of the latter recently to catch up, but this is fine for now. I've also got a few projects in the works - ideas constantly being written down. 

I've finally built up a writing network that could support me if I put more effort into it, but I have my eyes on the long term goal too. It may appear I've given up on AFP and it's just a distant memory to me, but this isn't the case. I do miss this place and all the people here. (Well, okay, most of them. Smile.)

Another thing I've learned over the last four years working for myself is that if something isn't working, change things up a bit. So, instead of trying to squeeze a few more shekels out of AFP, I'm trying to diversify a little and create other revenue streams. And it's working to an extent. It takes time, though. Actual work. There's no magic secret to making money online. It's just hard work, perseverance and a little bit of luck.

As to the question, though - what do I do for a living? I guess my title depends on the time of day and what mood I'm in. (From publisher to poet to friend...) I do work hard for the money, though, whatever hat I might be wearing at the time. Oh, it's not physical labor, but it's still work. Banging out "ad copy" is sort of like working on an assembly line. 

I love it, though. I really do. I feel blessed. I still have a lot to learn and a lot to do, but I'm getting there ... at a reasonable pace. 

Oh, and if you can guess who I ran into at the store tonight, you get all my AFP points. 

Thanks for everything each of you does to fulfill your role here at AFP - a true Anderson News Community.