How is your summer looking?

[deb_n]

Well my situation has changed yet again. In May, BlogTalkRadio announced they're cutting my hours to a part time/hourly basis - 4 hours a day. When they sent me the paperwork for the change I realized the hourly rate was a joke and if I wanted to earn that little, I'd go back to waiting tables. So, I decided to go back to writing and blogging, but also building a business as a social media consultant.

I have some clients, the pay is quite decent and my flexibility is back. I think it'll be a long time and a lot (read: obscene amounts) of money before I work full time for anyone again. I gained valuable experience, but after working on my own for so many years it was too strict and rigid for my liking. Plus my company had no idea what to do with me and it was very frustrating. I'm not into corporate rules.

I actually have a cool gig blogging for the BlogWorld and New Media Expo blog and a couple of clients who wish for me to help them build up their online presence. FWJ is doing well and I just hired two more writers. All in all, it's looking to be an awesome summer.

How is your summer looking?

[candyaddict]

Our summer WAS looking great... Teenormous is surpassing every expectation and every statistic we can think of, including revenue... now we find out the NC legislature (both Tom and I live in NC and our LLC is based in NC) are on their way to passing a new bill that affects us SEVERELY - to the point that many affiliate programs (Amazon included) will probably just drop all NC affiliates. Given that about 95% of our revenue currently comes from affiliate money, this will hurt us bigtime.

We have had plans for a while now to diversify our revenue stream so this may hasten those plans. We're also looking at relocating our company (as an LLC or C Corp or something) to a state more friendly to affiliates.

What a pain.

Candy Addict traffic is holding steady and GeekCrafts is doing great (still have to figure out the best way to monetize GC). I've all but given up on putting any more time/effort into Snackerrific.

[char]

Things are looking pretty cool here - not taking too much client work and spending more time boosting traffic to all my sites in preparation for the fall holiday season.

Deb - sounds like you have some great opportunities in front of you!

Brian - I heard about the NC thing and it is HORRIBLE. I certainly hope this does not become the way of the future and I really hope that NC and other states come to their senses soon.

[davidcubed]

My summer is looking busy to say the least. I am hoping it will all go well, but I'll have to wait and see. College Crunch is growing at an okay rate. Hopefully, we will have another big boost in traffic and search results soon. *crosses fingers*

Other than that, I am working on some stuff for Splashpress Media, as well as trying, once again, to write a fictional story of some length.

[randa]

My summer is looking HOT... temperature-wise that is. Seems design work always slows a little in the summer, so let me know if you could use my services- I'm usually more free to help with things immediately in the summer months.

@Brian - wow, that totally stinks! Hope you find a good solution.

[candyaddict]

@Brian - wow, that totally stinks! Hope you find a good solution.

Thanks! We have a plan. We'll just have to see if this moves up our schedule.

[rdash]

mine's sucking so far, as I am not authorized to work yet here in California (not even online for clients I had while living in Canada). I've lost $15-24K so far, for the sake of love. What's worse is that I think I've now lost most of my clients, so if I don't find a regular job, this is going to be a financial rough marriage

Other than that, I'm in heaven, with tons of fruit trees here: 2xoranges, lemons, limes, avocadoes, cumquats, persimmons, plums, apricots, pears, figs, and loads of vegetables. Very nice to have fresh fruit from the yard on a daily basis