It’s amazing how much things seem to change at the start of a year. It’s almost like karma knows that it’s the beginning of a new year, so it’s time to throw in some major changes. I can say the same about the end of the year. It’s uncanny at how that’s when the major metamorphoses take place. Or it’s just a winter thing.
Or in my case, it just happens to be the time that businesses reevaluate their services and financial plans.
I have been writing news for Game Revolution since December 2011, and while it was never the highest paying writing gig in the world, it was always steady, and I had a blast doing it. My role was slowly narrowed down since about late 2012, but I was brought over to Action Trip, another gaming site the overseeing company owned, to help make up the difference. Near the end of last year, I was promoted to writing more for AT, which led to writing my very first paid video game review.
A couple of weeks ago, I had a meeting with my boss over both sites, and due to a reallocation of the budget, I was let go from GR. Before I could get too upset, he followed up with a huge promotion at AT. I’m now the Lead Writer at AT, complete with flat rate pay each month to write news every day, write features every month, and write game reviews as they become available.
HOLY CRAP, I’M OFFICIALLY PAID TO WRITE ABOUT VIDEO GAMES.
When I first joined Kombo back in 2005 to edit articles for that site, I never once thought this would become a steady, paying job, one that I could actually rely on as somewhat of a career. I couldn’t ask for a better start for 2014.
As for my other steady job at Content Solutions, I have zero plans to leave that one, or to even abandon my SEO side business. One thing that freelancing has taught me is that you should never put all of your eggs in one basket, especially when it comes to the ever-tumultuous world of video games. My boss may absolutely love me now, but all it takes is a problem with traffic or the owning company to change directions for the site for everything to change on a dime.
Right now, I have everything fairly steady for the first time since I left the world of paralegals. I’m making sure I don’t take on too many projects on either end of the spectrum at one time, and I’m kind of living by the law of the to-do list. I’m also learning the power of saying “no.” I should have learned how to say that years ago.
To kind of celebrate these changes, I gave the blog a new look. I did the same with SGR earlier, and it just feels refreshing to give things a new paint job every now and then. Better here than asking Shawn to repaint the walls in our house.
Leave a Reply