I’m finally down to 214 items in my inbox. Whew. But there’s no way I’m getting to the post office today, so I guess the next Prize Book mailing will have to be Monday or Tuesday. At least I got some books out to reviewers this week.
Walked around the lake with Jill today too…boy, I need to exercise more.
Sigh. I don’t know what to do about the YABC website. The Google adwords advertsing was going relatively well…and then, very strangely, as the pageviews went up, the clicks went down (according to Google). Of course, even more strangely, the Google reported pageviews went down…it makes no sense. The site has been getting well over 200K pageviews a month, but Google only reports a fraction of that and I have at least the banner ad on every page.
I’ve emailed them about it a few times and they basically say “Sorry.” Which basically means, “We’re a great big huge company now and we can’t be bothered that you’re giving us thousands of pages of free advertising that we’re not going to pay you for. Sucks to be you! Ta-ta!”
Even using an average assumption based on how many clicks I was getting before (when Google’s reported pageviews were at least closer to what my stats show), I should be getting about double what they are giving me.
I used to use FastClick, but they hardly paid much at all and had annoying animated ads and junk ads to boot. I just can’t go back there. I spent more time reviewing the ads to make sure I wasn’t displaying gambling or dating sites than working on the site. At least, if felt that way.
I may just have to cut back on the free books or something. I can’t afford to keep running it at such a huge deficit. The Google $$ was covering the hosting costs (which were $40/month and are now $50/month) but now I’m only getting just over $30/month from them. Amazon income last quarter was just under $30, though it went up to around $70/quarter around Christmas. It’s the shipping costs that are killing me. Shipping is costing me somewhere around $100/month (sometimes more, sometimes less). Then there’s the other expenses – domain name, forum, newsletter…
At the moment, I’m in the red almost $800 so far this year.
I hate to do it, but the only thing that makes sense, if I can’t find other ways to earn some income off of the site, is to start disengaging from the forum giveaway and maybe even the forum in general. It costs me money to run it and most of the people in the forum either never visit the site, or already did anyway. And before I re-instituted the forum giveaway, it was really quiet in there.
I may have to do away with the review giveaway too. I don’t know. Ugh. Maybe it will just go down to the publisher sponsored contests (which I still pay shipping for) + the random newsletter giveaway, since that is only once a month. Though I still have to do something with the prize books. Maybe I’d just do a set giveaway instead of the review thing. I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.
I’m working outside today. It’s mostly nice — looks like it might rain, but I figured if I was going to be chained to my computer, I might as well enjoy the weather. Grace is hanging out with me too and she’s enjoying it — she likes to sit on the chairs under the table so she can see but no one can see her.
The garden is really coming along and the wildflower one has sprouted — so the birds didn’t get all of the seeds after all, the sneaky devils.
I got the YABC contest posted today (urk, a day late) and caught up on some of my email. Did a bit of work on the art show website and now…off to do some more getting the artists stuff ready for jurying.
Also helped clean out the laundry room a bit (Donna was here today — she’s the new lady I have helping me with the housework stuff I can’t do). Fed the squirrels, fed the birds. I swear, they are eating more now than they did in winter. I don’t get it.
I’m probably not the best person to speak on this since I can’t afford to pay any of the reviewers for YABC (or article writers — though I do “pay” in free books — but I would pay them if the site weren’t such a money pit), but this, from She Unlimited, has got to be one of the most BS (but daring) pitches to get you to write for them for FREE (italics are mine):
She Unlimited Magazine doesn’t pay our writers to write their articles just like our writers don’t pay us to let them use our network. The writing you do at She Unlimited Magazine establishes you as a respected, known author.
That’s about one of the biggest loads of crap I’ve ever heard. “Write for us for free! Hey, we don’t charge you to use our server space!” Yeah, and you don’t pay them for the advertising revenue that their copy generates either. And the bit about how doing this will make you a “respected, known author” …. whoo-boy. If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. It’s in Brooklyn and it is a little bit used, but I bet you could get some more use out of it.
Any writers out there that happen to be reading this — value your work. Only work for free if you truly truly truly get something out of it. And, in general, don’t. Your work is valuable. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Up, down. Abigail is going pretty well. I need to just clear off some space and maybe get away from my Internet connection. I keep distracting myself by working on the website. Today I added some forum stuff to the blog and to the site. The forum has picked up quite a bit since I announced the new giveaway (every 50 posts).
And e-mail…ugh. I have so many to answer! My to-do list is too long.
A lot of it is my own fault. If I have a day where I slack off, it just all builds up on me. Grr. But, I just cleaned out my inbox. 
(by dumping all the emails into a TO-Do folder…)
I want to go to the big flea market today. It’s about once a quarter and they have it at the Expo Center.
Dinner last night was good. My Shepherd’s Pie came out really well. I’ve got another extra one for dinner tonight and then off to the airport to pick up Tony!
