Mid-March: A Slump, Of Sorts

It's halfway through March, and a full two weeks since my last post.  In that time I've done considerably less than expected, which is disappointing.  I wanted to hit a goal of $200 in earnings for the month of March.  Here we are smack in the middle of the month and I've earned only about $20 so far.  I'm hoping things will pick up this week so I can meet my goal.

Mechanical Turk has had very little work available.  I've only been able to really work one day, netting that $20 worth of earnings.  I try to math out the rate per hour of the HITs I work on by estimating the number I can complete per minute, multiplying by 60, and then multiplying the total by the payment per HIT.  For example, say I'm performing a task that pays $.05 and takes me 20 seconds to complete.  That's 3 HITs per minute, so:

3 (HITs per minute) x 60 (minutes per hour) = 180 (HITs per hour)
180 (HITs per hour) x $.05 (price per HIT) = 9 (dollars per hour)

$9 is above minimum wage, so I'll gladly work HITs at this rate for as long as I can.  If this same HIT only netted 2 cents each, that'd only be $3.60 an hour - so generally not worth the time.  Under most circumstances, I'd choose to avoid HITs that pay below minimum wage so I could feel like I was maximizing my time.  This month I've had to perform lower-paying work just to have some earnings under my belt.  I'm not too happy with the Turk at the moment, but I'm confident it can still help me hit that $200 mark.  Considering there are 16 days left this month, I'd need to make $11.25 per day to meet my goal, or $20 per day for 9 days.  Still doable, but pressuring nonetheless.

I haven't written on any kind of real scale this month, though I'd hoped to.  My computer is right in the center of the action at my house - directly across from the front door and only about 5 feet from the living room.  This positioning makes it difficult to concentrate as people come and go or watch television.  My sister was sick this week and we had a run of bad weather, so the family were in my way more than usual.  I did write a few articles, but eHow is having publishing issues (again), and am still feeling out the other sites.  I've continued to do research on things that will help me earn money online such as SEO and backlinking, so my time hasn't been completely wasted.  I've got a few ideas in the works and have gotten started on 3 other sites, which will earn me a minimum of $10 extra by the end of the month.  I hope to have a few productive writing days before March wraps up, working on about 10-20 more pieces.

All in all, I don't have too much to report for this month so far.  Like I said, I'm kind of disappointed at the lack of work I've put out this month.  I'm still just as passionate about meeting my goals - especially with my vacation looming at the end of May.  There are still two weeks to pull myself out of this slump and that's exactly what I intend to do.