Want to let people here know
I can be rather blunt sometimes, and I am still working on my people skills. There are a lot of reasons for me to follow through with this site- not the least of which is because I'm not the one who was able to back me- a friend did so.
This is our dream. It is a shared dream between many of our friends and us, but we want to do our best to make it shine before we open it up and share with everyone we want to share it with.
SO on to what you should know about me- the one who will be here on WA sharing our journey and trying to help and inspire others with what we learn.
I am a mother, as my profile states. I have two great kids- both noted autistic by the school system in Maryland, We lived there for 10 months last year and because of our financial situation and only having temporary living space, we were forced to move back to a dangerous area for us. This took away most of the support our family was finally getting.
Here we couldn't get anyone to work with us for our sons sake in the school system. They refused to create a learning program for him for long enough that now it will be ten times harder to help him through a normal public school. He is now being schooled via K12 and I am there to help and he doesn't have to deal with the bullies that this brick and mortar school forced him to deal with.
Thankfully our daughter was evaluated and given an IEP while we were in MD so now this school has to work correctly with her education instead of ignoring them like they did her brothers. I wish we could have stayed where our troubles with not only the school system but medical were next to none.
I have all the symptoms of something called "Chiari Malformation" but I have never been tested for it. This is not because I haven't tried, but because the place we are living seems to think of it as a medical unicorn and most doctors here have to have you spell it for them and thinks you made up the issue. It causes memory issues, stress, migraines, gag reflex issues, weakness in the limbs, sight problems, balance issues, seizures and several other problems. With a list like that, having all the symptoms yourself kind of makes you realize that life is special and that maybe all these so called 'random' problems that have all been scripted to separate problems, rather than looked as a whole, might mean the doctors in your area aren't very well trained. It also backs my thoughts that the doctors in MD all listened to my list of symptoms and my theory (a friend with Chiari noticed the symptoms, knew my mom had it, and told me how its genetic) and agreed and wanted to do testing to diagnose me officially. I was a week out from doing so when we had to move- back to square one and spelling it out to every doctor I meet- and I mean actually spelling 'Chiari' for the doctor so he can google it.
I am also trans. I am pre everything and can't safetly try to move towards the goal of being myself in the state I am in without risking the courts taking my kids- which is BS. In MD I would have been safe and been able to make the change without an issue- instead of spending most days in a severe depression and hating every aspect of my life.
I know most people on here write as professionals and only want to share what they are doing on their sites and praise WA for everything- I probably will as well once our site takes off! However, trust me, there is a reason for all of this!
I also show signs of being autistic. I don't "get" a lot of what is said at oints, or see certain things as being silly or redundant to say... or wonder how we could all be here when much of the site seems spammed with "WA is great" bots- which for someone who thinks like me, throws up red flags.
I'll tell you why I chose WA, this way you can understand why I may come off as a bit, I don't know, abrasive? When I don't actually mean to.
I am already a researcher and writer for my current crap job. I've learned how to search out reviews, good and bad, and read between the lines. WA is great for those just starting up. We lack experience and the next best thing wants nearly a grand before they will help. It does have its downsides, and before choosing it, I read all about them. One of the biggest being that everyone makes it seem waaaay too easy to start up a site and be rolling in cash within a month or two. I know it takes a lot more than that. It takes a lot of time, research and work before your site takes care of you. This isn't a "fast cash" scenario, but many make it sound that way... and that gives WA a bad rep because then those expecting it get upset and quit when their first several tries fail.
Maybe rather than praising it so hard and making it sound like an overnight miracle, and that simply being on premium is going to make me suddenly a success- we should focus on using that first week to let people know it takes more than just their passion an a few hours or even months to make the money thwy are hoping for? That being a premium member doesn't automatically turn them into a cash machine?
If we start being more honest about what it takes, then those that want to flag us as a scam, or tear us down for not meeting their expectations right away, will find it much more difficult to do so. Honesty is always better than over the top flamboyance that stretches truth out too far and turns it into a fantasy realm.
How many of you started out, that very first month, and didn't make more than say.. a few dollars? How long did it take? How many of you struggled and only hit your goal after several months or years? What did it take? What made you hang in there when in the back of your mind you were wondering if you would ever see it happen?
I'm not even started yet, and I can answer a few of those questions: I want to go home to Maryland where my family is safe and cared for. Where we are out of danger and can sleep peacefully at night. I want- no need- to get out of a job that has nearly sent me into seizures from stress the last few months and work on something I love. I want to show my kids success comes from never giving up. Those are what drives me... what were or are yours? If its money, then maybe its time to re-evaluate... for while we all need that in order to accomplish other goals, it should not be our main goal!
Iason
Recent Comments
8
lason, not everything in life is positive, or rosey. Many of us have been where you are. I am going on my second year at WA. I haven't made a lot of money, but to be honest, that wasn't my reason for joining. I was and still am, pretty computer illiterate, so my motive was to learn something.
WA is not the answer to all your problems and I only hope we can help redirect some of your frustration into a positive relationship here.
No bed of roses. No one is going to do it but you.
I wish you great success and if I can help in any way, I'm glad to do so.
Joe
That's just it, when I first started looking around I got spammed with "You are going to make it really easy" and I already knew that wasn't true. I even asked Kyle why he let a bot welcome everyone with a message that made things sound easy and that you'd make it in a flash...
He answered me honestly and that attracted my attention a bit more- mainly because the response was no longer his bot talking! :D It's ok to have a bot do the impossible task of saying hi to every new member, but a slightly more realistic approach should be the message it relays.
It's so tempting to make completely positive responses to garner people into something they *could* be successful with- but it is WAY more responsible and better off, in the long run, to make people anticipate how much work it takes. It only took me 2 hours to set up the beginnings of our page, but I still am trying to figure out why the widget is only showing one of the topic areas for our site and not the entire list like I was trying to get it to do. (I also can't figure out why all the side widgets are still white and have not changed color like the rest! LOL)
I am VERY computer literate due to going to college for Video Game Art and attaining my bachelors. We had to build 3D models, learn how to UV them and then make sure the UVs were right so when you colored them they didn't look all stretched out and icky... we also had to learn mild rigging and animation and a lot of other highly technical things. Because it was an online college we also had to learn how to troubleshoot and fix technical areas with our skills and maintain our computers.
Through role-playing online (text-based freestyle which is SO much fun AND distracting as it is my go-to get away from life's constant pressure) I learned basic set up for websites to create profiles. My art portfolio's also helped with this aspect. However, this is a 'from scratch, no one is giving you a diagram on what buttons edit what in your particular chosen layout in editor' which is HUGELY different in a lot of ways. It will likely take me 2 months just to have it all down.
My current job also uses Wordpress for their site, but their set up is ALWAYS changing and has SO many bugs in it that really they should be retraining the writers every other month which is impossible to do while keeping things running smoothly. A lot of what they expect us as writers to do when logging in our articles is full of problems when you keep changing the layout, word count expectations, and not having the proper widgets to mark each titled section.
I want to make sure we set ours up simple, but have an appealing look and ease to get around for readers. We intend to have artwork, music, and videos as much as actual blogging though, so its not the easiest thing to manage!
Iason
lason, you’re way outta my league! I have always been into realistic motivation. I'm not from MO, but you gotta show me. I have described myself as a pessimistic optimist! I know there is no such thing, but that’s me.
I'm sure you will bring a lot to WA as well as receiving a lot also.
Glad you’re here.
Joe
I am a hands-on learner. That means unless I am the one doing it, I'll never understand. You can show or tell me a million times, but until I, myself, am exploring and doing it daily, I won't ever recall. Once I do learn something and am using it regularly for a long time, I don't tend to forget it.
My fiance learns the same way- which can be frustrating to try and teach, because since we both learn the same way we think "its easy" once we have it down and can't quite understand why no one else gets it. Its instinctive at that point and to us seems like it should be for everyone. We know it isn't, but it creates a barrier to the teaching aspect.
Funny thing is though, once I have learned something I can usually teach anyone else who doesn't learn the same way I do. I can walk them step-by-step through what I did and its usually simpler than the instructions I end up finding and using according to those I have done so for on different topics. So, once I learn what I can- I will definitely offer you help where yu would like it!
Iason
Iason,
Welcome Aboard!
Ok, here's honesty for ya...
It's hard work doing this, but those that work hard, and don't give up?... Succeed. (It sounds like you already know what hard work is, so this will be not so bad).
It's not an overnight thing either. Some start making money fairly quickly, others? Not as fast.
Shaunna
Our choice topic has a lot of competition in some regards, but what we chose to do with it sets us apart.
When most gamers go to a site it is only for one style of gaming- you get video games OR tabletop OR online role-playing OR minis Or card games, etc. We love ALL game types, so rather than having to hop all over the place to find each type we simply have our site organized to each type of game and you will be able to find information for all of them in one place.
We are also doing it from the gamers perspective rather than the stereotypical corp perspective and therefore won't have the bias many sites have towards a specific brand.
Between that and our unique name, we should be able to start pushing fairly quickly after we figure out how to use the sites layout (widgets are so confusing! XD)
ALL three of us know it won't be overnight because of our intentions with the site, and we know it takes time to get traffic (my friend and I have sites/portfolio's online that we made through other means that are intended for getting hired for our specific skills or sells our pre-designed products and they rarely garner enough attention because of the competition for them).
The hardest part will be in the learning curve and setting things the way we need to in order to run things smoothly and learning how the site gains money in the first place. (How do you add the products and Ads to start making money? )
It is our love for writing about, reading about, playing with and sharing games of all types that made us all jump into the 'deep end'. We know our site can and likely will succeed- but we also know we have to show up in that search bar first!
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I got your point. We have to see things as it is without sugar coating. Honesty is being honest first to ourselves. We need to really face up with the realities. Nothing comes easy. And I see you have loads more than you could carry but you carried them all anyway. You are tougher than you think. WA is one avenue to attain an extra source of income. If we are up to it. (Try to check out my blog tomorrow, dedicated to you, Iason. You inspired me.)
I have had a lot happen in the last three months. Sadly it put this on the back burner. The job I had (yes... bad news) was stressing me so badly that I couldn't keep up with life. They fired me this past monday during the process of dissolving their entire company. Right before my daughters birthday and Christmas- not exactly holiday cheer for those of us who loyaly stuck through the stress and constant changes.
Good side is now all I have are the projects like this one which were intended to start me n the path to freedom from relying on such people for income and much needed breaks (I did not have a single vacation working for them and by the end we didn't really have days off either due to deadlines that were insanely set). I am working on making a lot of noise on our site and rekindling the flame with the other two I am working with on it so we can get some readers and start aiming for the income part of it all.
Unfortunately I cannot see a date on this post, it only says 3 months, and I would much love to go and read the post. :)