Day 974

Do you ever get those e-mails asking you to write a review after you've bought something online? I get them all the time. Today, I was kind of bored, so I looked through my inbox for some of the review requests. I wrote about five quick reviews and then is dawned on me. Hey, this is exactly what I do for a living. The reviews were like little ads. There was a headline and a short paragraph of body copy saying nice things about the product. And I was writing these things for free. No wonder it's harder to get copywriting jobs these days. Manufacturers and retailers have discovered that people will do their marketing for free. All they have to do is offer some sort of contest or incentive and they've got thousands of people writing for them. The company I wrote the reviews for today said that if you submitted a review, your name would be entered in a drawing and you could win up to $1000. How likely is that? Jeez, I've bought stuff from these guys for years and never once heard anything about anyone winning a prize.

The weather is so weird in Texas. There was a big storm last night. Some parts of town got huge amounts of rain and their power went out.  Other parts of town got no rain at all. We were somewhere in between. We got rain, but not enough to upset the dogs. I must be getting better about patching too, because there were no water leaks in the morning. I was actually kind of amazed. There seemed to be no downside to this particular downpour at all.

Since it was a slow day, I made French Toast and sausages for breakfast. I must be easy to please. French Toast, sausages, and a couple of hours of Dr. Who in the morning and I'm a happy camper. The dogs were in a good mood today as well. The rain cooled things down, so dog class was actually pleasant for a change. The days are getting shorter though. By the time class was over, it was already dark.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 972

So far this month I've had four different clients tell me that I'll get paid a bit late this month because the boss left for vacation with a bunch of unsigned checks on his desk. This happens every August. Sometimes, I go on vacation myself, because everyone else is already gone. August is always the month with the highest electric and water bills and the least amount of money coming in. At least there's September. September's usually pretty good.

I finally reached the payout threshold on Google Adwords again. It took a while. Hey, if I could live on $100 a year, I'd be all set. Maybe you guys are getting rich, but so far, I haven't discovered the secret to making money online. I saw an article the other day that said "most people don't like to buy things on the Internet, they like to join things instead." So true. Almost every day I get one of those "join my cause" messages on Facebook. I never dreamed there were so many causes out there. Nobody is buying my Instagram pictures yet, but they sure are re-pinning them on Pinterest. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I'm the same way. Things are much more interesting when they're free.

I got a request this morning to put a picture of an award that one of my clients had won on their website. Of course, the client failed to attach the picture of the award to their e-mail. A few years ago I would have wasted half the day sending e-mails back and forth trying to get them to send me the right picture. Today, I just spent ten minutes making something that looked like the award in Photoshop and stuck it on the site. I'm tired of making mountains out of molehills. Hey, I specialize in molehills. I can make a nice looking molehill with no input whatsoever.

Dash's bath didn't last long. I caught him out in the backyard this afternoon digging a big hole which he subsequently took a nap in. Our new grass was supposed to prevent all this, but it's August and the grass is already dying.

Emma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day