Thanks Rat Race Rebellion!

The nice folks over at Rat Race Rebellion noticed I had mentioned them on this blog and asked me to do an interview for their website. I am not sure if I can link to it, so I will copy and paste for now! Pretty awesome to be interviewed for something I’ve done for only a few months!

SUCCESS STORIES FROM RAT RACE REBELLION
Looking for home-based work can be discouraging sometimes. Prospective employers are disappointingly silent, scammers tell you every day that you’ve “won the lottery,” and people are often at home alone, and haven’t yet developed the online “moral support” networks that more experienced home-based workers share.

So periodically we’ll run profiles of some of the folks who have found work through our job leads. This week we feature Peggy Crippen, a mom and writer who lives in Kansas.

Here’s Peggy’s story, in her own words.

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PreschoolRock was the initial writing job I found through Rat Race Rebellion. I am pretty sure that Demand Studios (through a link to Media Bistro) came from a Rat Race Rebellion job lead as well. It did not take long for me to find these jobs, either. I started visiting Rat Race Rebellion at the beginning of October, and by Dec. 1 my site at PreschoolRock went live.

I live in central Kansaswith my husband and son. During the day, I am a counselor working with military service members transitioning out of the Army. Writing is my latest (and most fun!) career venture. Currently, I write the Kindergarten Preparation section of PreschoolRock, a preschool website at http://kindergarten.preschoolrock.com/, as well as freelance articles for Demand Studios. I also write a blog at http://pegswriting.wordpress.com . My long-term goal is to write full time.

I attended college at Kansas State University and have a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s in Human Development and Family Studies. For many years, I worked with families and children doing parent education and social services at a preschool program for low-income families. My other career experiences include working with survivors of domestic violence and adults with chronic mental illness.

I left my job doing parent education to be at home more with my family, but working with parents and their preschool children is my passion. By writing, I can share my knowledge and provide parents of preschoolers with some useful information. I am continuing to research and read on topics related to parenting so I am able to provide new insights to those reading my website.
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We asked Peggy to elaborate on her work-at-home situation.

RRR:Describe your writing responsibilities at PreschoolRock.com.

PEGGY CRIPPEN:After being selected as a topic writer for Kindergarten Preparation at PreschoolRock.com, my first job was to set up the pages. Although I was not familiar with web publishing, learning the process was fairly easy because I had a good editor to walk me through it.

Selecting the topics was a bit trickier, only because I wanted to include as much information as I could and I had many ideas. I have a decade of experience working with children preparing to enter kindergarten, so I had to consider what would be most helpful to parents.

After I wrote the initial articles and got the pages formatted, I launched my site on December 1st of last year. Now, I write and publish at least one article a week, but I am free to write and publish as many articles as I would like.

RRR: What kind of writing would you like to do full-time, and why?

PEGGY CRIPPEN: I love to write, so I am enjoying my topic writer position. I am hoping to branch out and write about other topics, though. Writing for print publications is my goal and my dream is to write a book someday. For now, the Internet is a great place for me and I am working on continually improving my writing skills.

RRR: How has working from home benefited you and your family, and what, if anything, would you change about working from home, if you could?

PEGGY CRIPPEN: The practical side of working from home is that I save two hours in commute time and am better able to balance family obligations with work. Working from home has also given me more freedom to express my creative side. I am able to work at my own schedule and am more productive at writing because of it. Right now, I am still working some outside my home as a counselor, so I am not fully at home yet. My goal is to build enough of a client base to be at home fully by the end of the year.

I am lucky that I have a husband who supports me in most anything I choose to do. My five year old son loves it when I work from home. He likes knowing what I do when I am working, and understands that some of my computer time is work time. When he starts school in the fall, it will be a no-brainer that I will work when he is at school and my husband is at work, so I will have more time to spend with them afterward.

Working from home requires planning. If I could change anything about working from home, I would have set up an office or desk and filing system to keep everything more organized ahead of time. It is difficult to accomplish what needs to be done when things around you are in chaos. I have wasted time getting things organized after the fact. (copyright 2008 Staff Centrix LLC)

Niche, what niche?

I haven’t really figured out if I am in a niche or not.

By default I have a decade’s worth of experience in early childhood education/parenting education/social services. I have a website about preschoolers transitioning to kindergarten.  In a way, that puts me in a niche, but I have not really been able to catch any other assignments in this field. The fact that I hold a master’s degree in human development/family studies makes this the obvious fit for a niche.  This is a very crowded area with a bunch of great (and more experienced) competition. I am married to a retired soldier and work with soldiers as they leave the military.  The whole military niche is much less crowded, I am guessing. My guess is that the demand is less as well.

If I do chose a niche and stick to it, will it make me more successful? For now, I believe I will keep trying to write on a variety of topics in different forms. My strengths should eventually show themselves.

Query Letters

Writing query letters is one of my goals. I have been reading a lot about the process. Up until now, I have been approaching writing a query much the same as I would a cover letter to apply for a job. As I understand it, my queries are probably not quite hitting the mark. So, I am going to try a new format.

Here is how I am going to try and write my queries:

1. Address to specific editor. Absolutely no generic queries. I always knew this one, but it is worth mention.
2. Two to three sentence “eye catcher” paragraph. A bit of an attention-getter.
3. Meat and potatoes of the article. Specifics on length and sub-topics.
4. Credentials (hopefully clips when I have some more)

Formatting the whole thing in an easy to read package is just common sense.

I will let you know when this is successful.

My Writing Goals

It is time that I develop more direction in my writing. So far, opportunities present themselves and I take them. If I am to ever write full time, I will have to become more deliberate. So here are five goals I am making for myself.

1. Publish five articles in a written publication by the end of the year.
2. Write at least two query letters per week to help me achieve goal #1.
3. Read Make A Real Living as a Freelance Writer.
4. Write enough articles for my PreschoolRock website.
5. Expand my online writing to other reputable websites.

Most of these goals are measurable enough that I can easily see my progress. However, I still need to add hours to the day to be successful.

Another Writing Gig

Writing for money is a great deal different than writing for myself. I have to pay a bit more attention and actually proofread. Paying attention to writing requirements and details makes me check through things an extra time or two. Again, something I should do anyway.

I have written about 50 how-to articles for Demand Studio and a website called eHow. I have a note from my editor in my inbox to write some more, so hopefully that number will increase.

My articles  will not win me any literary prizes, but I did earn a bit of income and once again get more experience. I also get paid for article views, so take a look at them if you would like. The link is on my writing page.

The pay is not great, but the articles are easy to write. Pay for these articles beats the heck out of the $2 per article SEO mills that I have read about. I can spend a little less than an hour researching and writing a simple how-to. It is fun for me to come up with topics. At some point in time, I won’t want to write any more articles for them, but for now it is experience.

I am learning about writing for the web. My next goal is to learn how to write for print. I would love to write articles for magazines. My current project is to educate myself on how to write a great query letter.

The next thing I plan on conquering is my organization and time management issues. When I figure out how to add an extra two hours for the day, I will be thrilled. I guess for now, I will stick to careful scheduling.