Thoughts on Being a Freelance Writer

I have a brother who writes articles for a living. Here is some advice for the aspiring freelance writer:

1. Usually, the metric for article writing is in terms of cents per word. According to him three cents per word is the ABSOLUTE LOWEST rate that you should ever accept, and you should only accept that when you're just starting out. To give you some idea, this translates to 15 dollars for a 500 word article.

2. Once you start to become established as a writer, you can expect rates that are much higher than that. I've seen a few of his articles get paid upwards of 28 cents per word and some magazines pay up to a dollar per word. For a 500 word article, this would mean that you should expect 140$ (at the $.28 per word rate).

3. If you're going to do this as a business, keep track of how much time you spend per article.Translate your writing into a dollars per hour rate to see if you're making a reasonable wage. Factor in that you have to pay taxes, insurance, etc.

4. Having said that, if you have other options for professions, you should consider your options. Freelance writing of articles is hard, and you don't get paid vacation, sick days, or many of the perks associated with a full time job.

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Should I Move to Edmonton Canada?

I was checking out the website about  Edmonton Apartments for rent recently, and now I have a strong desire to move to Edmonton Canada. Do you think that this is a wise idea?

One of the reasons that I want to move there is because of the Edmonton Oilers, part of the Canadian football league. I think that I would be a huge fan. I mean, with a name like the Edmonton Oilers, who wouldn't be a fan of this team?

Also, the Wikipedia page says that average daily temperatures range from -11.7C in January to 17.5C in July. This seems like a good range of temperatures to me. -12.2C in January would be a bit too low, but -11.7C seems just about right.

Finally, Edmonton is part of the North Saskatchewan River valley parks system. I just enjoy saying that name over and over again while I sleep. It's very enjoyable.

So, do you think that I should move to Edmonton? post your vote in the comments section of my blog.

Debating on whether to get a Playstation 3

I am personally debating on whether to upgrade my Playstation 2 to a Playstation 3, and I would like some advice from my readers. Here is a little bit of background on me so that maybe you help more.

I would consider myself somewhat of a casual gamer. I enjoy playing occasionally, but I rarely get time because of school and work constraints. Most of the games that I play are on the computer, including Starcraft 2 and the Civilization series games.

However, I also have had console games at various times in life, including a PS2 and a wide range of PS2 games. I would be very interested in getting a PS3, but I am not sure if it would be worth it because of the price. Mostly, I would just use it to entertain.

Any advice?

500 Post on My Blog -- Reflections and Advice

I have either hit (or am soon to hit) about 500 posts on my blog. So, reflecting back on this monumental achievement, I have some thoughts and words of advice.

1. The key to having more than your friends and family visit your blog is persistence: To write 500 posts, I had to do a lot of groundwork for this blog, both in the way of writing and networking through social media. A lot of that work was done back when the number of visitors that I have per day sometimes exceeds the number of visitors that I used to get per month. So, I had to keep blogging, even when I didn't get that many people reading my blog.

2. Twitter is an awesome source for traffic: 500 blog posts have taught me that Twitter (and more recently Facebook) are awesome sources for traffic that all bloggers should utilize. Probably 1/2 or so of my daily traffic on this blog is directly attributable to Twitter. It gives each of my blog entries a very long shelf life because I constantly retweet old posts.

3. Having a big blog is awesome: Not only do I have a big blog now (which the search engines love), but I have a sort of online diary. Even though most of my entries are videos or picture lists, I have a record of the types of things that made me smile, think, and grin (like all the pictures of pretty girls I have on here).

4. There is no money to be made in blogging unless you treat it like a part time job: 500 blog entries have taught me that, unless you're willing to work at it like a part time job, there is little money to be made in blogging. Sum total, I think that I have made about 200 dollars lifetime from blogging, including Adsense and paid blog entries revenue. I firmly believe that people can make money (as Doocebag Megan Armstrong has proven), but I don't think that very many people make money overall. And even then, they would probably make more money for the time spent by going down to UPS and throwing boxes at night.

5. Blogging can be rewarding: I feel a sense of accomplishment when I reflect on my blog entries. Even with the short entries I usually write on here, it's pretty good to get 500 of them.

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Introduction to Starcraft 2: Marine Arena

Image via Wikipedia

One of the most popular user created games of the Starcraft 2 series is a mod called Marine Arena. Accessible through the Custom Games menu, marine arena offers users a break from regular Starcraft 2 tournaments or ladder play. Focused around unit micromanagement, tactics, and overall strategy (i.e. unit counters), Marine Arena offers play based around control of auto-spawning marines, mercenaries, and heroes without having to worry about mining and overall (macro) economic management.

In the most played version of the game, eight players are divided into four teams of two players per team. The overall goal of each team is to preserve their own command centers (located at each team's spawning base) while killing the command centers of the opposing teams. Money is awarded for each enemy unit that is killed and as bonuses at regular intervals during the game. Each player initially starts out with a command center that auto-spawns marines and a set amount of money, agreed upon by players through a voting system before the game starts. This money can be used to purchase mercenaries that range from zealots and marauders on the low end to goliaths and void rays on the high end. Choosing the right mercenaries relative to your opponents can make the difference between winning and losing the game.

Heroes, which are single units with very strong attack, life, and armor statistics, can also be purchased as the game progresses. Buying a hero is a high risk gamble with the potential for high rewards. On the one hand, buying and upgrading a hero is a huge investment of money, and a player can quickly fall behind if the hero is unable to kill enough enemy units to make it a profitable investment. On the other hand, experienced players can use heros to literally change the course of battles and almost defeat other players using the hero alone.

The map and game are both popular and constantly rebalanced by the development team behind the game. As a result, in game strategies are constantly changing and the game play is very dynamic.

I would highly recommend this game to Starcraft 2 fans and interested gamers alike.

Starcraft 2 Babe -- Very Sexy

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How to Beat the Char Level in StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty

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How to Get Unstuck on the Hardest Level in the Game

Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty is one of the hottest new games of 2010. However, the final level on the planet Char, where Jim Raynor faces his the evil zerg Queen of Blades is a nightmare for the inexperienced player. However, with a few modification in your game play, this level is possible to beat. Here are the steps to guide you through.

1. Build lots of choke point defense: The first task when you start this level is to build up your choke point defenses as much as possible. You should build at least 2-3 bunkers at each choke with supply depots in front of each. Also, you should siege up your tanks on the tops of the cliffs overlooking each choke point. If you do this, you will probably survive the first couple of minutes.

2. Use lots of SCVS to repair the front line defenses: Once your front line defenses are set up, you're going to want to use lots of SCVs at each choke point to repair those defenses. You need to have at least 6 SCVs at all times repairing if you expect to survive the waves of zerg attacking your front door. It's also useful to have a couple of medics around to heal the SCVs as they take splash damage from your siege tanks.
At this point, your strategy will diverge, depending on whether you took out the nydus canal network or the mutalisk next on the previous mission.

If you took out the nydus network:

3a. Build TONS of vikings: You are going to have massive waves of mutalisks attacking your position and the only mobile defense you'll have will be your faithful vikings. At all times, you probably need 3 squadrons of at least 12-16 vikings, each with 3-5 attached SCVs repairing them.

3b Build a wall of missle turrets: This will help kill any mutalisks that manage to make it through your valkyries. Any extra minerals you get should go to missle turret construction.

3c Use tanks to take out the Queen of Blades: During each of her attacks, focus your tanks down on her from the cliffs.

If you destroyed the mutalisk nest: 

4a Build TONS of banshees: You're going to really need these banshees, both to help hold your front door and to take out any nydus worms that pop out of the ground. I would recommend at least 2 groups of 12 at each of your front doors, with SCVs repairing them.

4b Immediately take out any nydus worms: If you let even a couple of these worms stay up, I promise that you WILL get overrun. Every time that a nydus canal pops up, it is top priority to use your banshees to kill it.

4c Use your banshees to kill Kerrigan: When she attacks, use all available banshees to kill that weirdo as fast as possible, your banshees should make quick work of her -- probably a 20 second or so kill at the max.

5. Don't be afraid to use mercenaries: If you have available mercenaries, use all of them up. They are a lot stronger than your regular troops, and money shouldn't be a problem in this level.
Good luck!

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