Treatment for TMJ: The non-treatment that rid me of jaw pain

My three big reasons to re-prioritize and reduce stress

A few months ago my jaw suddenly started hurting.  It remained this way for weeks to the point when I finally called my dentist.  By the time I got in there, I could barely open my jaw far enough for one finger to slide between my upper and lower teeth.  My dentist diagnosed it as TMJ.  

"What is TMJ?" you ask.   Web MD describes it like this:

"Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) occur as a result of problems with the jaw, jaw joint and surrounding facial muscles that control chewing and moving the jaw. These disorders are often incorrectly called TMJ, which stands for  temporomandibular joint." Possible causes include:

• Grinding or clenching the teeth, which puts a lot of pressure on the TMJ
• Dislocation of the soft cushion or disc between the ball and socket
• Presence of osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis in the TMJ
• Stress, which can cause a person to tighten facial and jaw muscles or clench the teeth

Since, I don't grind my teeth, my dentist told me to try to identify points of stress, put on a hot compress on my jaw, and do a few jaw exercises.  I was not given any medication.   I knew it had to be stress related because the pressures of motherhood are tremendous.  In fact the condition is far more common in women than man and is ususally diagnosed between 20 and 40 years old.

As a 30-something SAHM with two little kids I was drowning under the pressure - much of it self imposed.  I had started out freelance writing "for fun" nearly five years ago after my daughter was born and I stopped working in the newsroom.  At times I made very good money.  Business was going so well for me that I had hired an assistant.  But the online writing freelance world isn't steady and shouldn't be relied on for consistent income.  

Hey, savings account, remember me???

"We're baaaaaack!" You have no idea how excited I am to report that that's exactly what I said to my savings account the other day. Yes, we've missed each other for the last 11 months. It's been that long...basically since I stopped working to become a SAHM...that my husband and I have actually been able to put money into the savings. Last month though, my online writing earnings (which totaled $604 and change) provided us with a surplus...and therefore "We're back!" The best part is, it isn't a small surplus it's several hundred dollars...$300 to be exact!

Let me explain how it all works out b/c this is possible for all stay-at-home moms to achieve. By looking at my monthly earnings you'll see it takes time (and all I have is nap time)...but a year isn't much, if you think about it. While I never thought I'd be where I am, less than year after leaving the workforce,  I'm so happy I've put the dedication in to give my family several online revenue streams.

The only two websites I write for are Examiner.com and eHow.com, each a little different, but each a great gig in its own right.

The last eHow article I wrote was on 9/3/09, the last one before that was on 7/31/09.  In other words: I've been on hiatis from eHow for awhile. However, I've continued to earn, and increase my monthly income, each month as you can see from screen grabs of my eHow earnings reports.  And this, my friends is the beauty of passive residual income!

So why I haven't I written for eHow lately if I continue to see such dramatic monthly earning increases? Well, I heard about this great little start-up writing site called Examiner.com. Perhaps you've heard of it. Perhaps you even write for it. I have to admit, when I first started on Examiner I wasn't too impressed with the earnings. The site pays what usually equals out to a little less than a penny a page view.   Doesn't sound like much, does it? Well, that's where a penny/page view can be deceiving.

 I have two "spots" on Examiner.  My original spot was as the Baltimore SAHMs Examiner. I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed in the payoff considering the time and effort I put into writing daily articles.  Since the site only lets you see earnings for the current and previous months, I'll just have to tell you that in July (my first month) I earned $33.95. In August, I did slightly better earning $44.24. And in September Examiner deposted $299.67 into my PayPal account.

So what happened in October? A few things:

• Started second spot as the Celebrity Kids Examiner (earning $160.00 from September 16-30)
  
• Two Examiner referrals at $50 each

So in actuality I made $199.67 for my writing efforts. (Clearly, the majority was from my new gig.) But look what happened in October with strictly writing and NO referrals. (Since I have two spots, I have two earnings reports.)

If you do the math you'll see that in just my third full month on Examiner I made almost $500! Combined with my monthly earnings from eHow, in October my grand total is just about $825!!!! And you know what that means..."Hey savings, we'll be back again, real soon!"

When I started this little thing I now call freelance writing my goal was to pay off one bill. I was so excited when I was able to do that with an ehow deposit of $26.75. Granted, it was a small bill. Now my goal is to pay the entire monthly credit card bill (which ranges between $1000-$1300 in a typical month) with just my freelance writing earnings. I hope to do it by March 2010.

I'll keep you posted!

PS. If you're wondering why I haven't been making as many blog posts as of late...now you know!

Related Links:

Earn Passive Residual Income on eHow.com (by a SAHM making $1300 a month...it's how I cracked the code)

Ehow's legit...Don't say I didn't tell you so

eHow pays moms for their expertise

Make real money writing for Examiner.com (part of my Make Money Monday series)

My eHow story...month by month

Making Money Online: My Most Successful Month as a Mom So Far

Far and away, August has been my most lucrative month in my little side business (aside from being a full time mom, of course) as an online freelance writer. I'm really starting to see some serious money rolling into my PayPal account each month. A full year after my daughter was born, and 10 months after leaving my job as a TV News Producer, my online venture is starting to make a real difference in our monthly budget.


As you read down and look at my sources of income keep the following in mind: I am a fulltime, SAHM. I do not have a babysitter any day of the week. I only write or "work" when my daughter is napping (max 3 hours a day) and I rarely do work after my husband comes home (around 4pm) or on the weekends. Some days I do not write or "work" at all because I have other more pressing things to do such as housecleaning or grocery shopping. That being said - it is possible for moms (yes, even those of walking, curious and on-the-go one year olds) to make $500+ a month in extra cash. Here's how I did it in August.

Ehow Earnings: $252.26
Ehow Article Written in August: 0
Note: 100% passive residual income
Learn more writing how-to articles and earning passive residual income on Ehow.com

Examiner Earnings: $44.24
Examiner Articles Written in August: 23
Learn more about becoming a freelance writer for Examiner.com

Examiner Bonus Earnings From Referrals: $150 ($50 per referral)

eBay Earnings: $33.84
Items Sold on eBay in August: 3

Affiliate Earnings in August: $ 15.07
Commission Junction: $1.25
Amazon: $1.32
E-Junkie: $12.50
Total Products Sold thru Affiliate Programs: 4
Note: 100% Passive Income
Learn more about Affiliate Marketing as a way to earn passive residual income

August Dual-Family Yard Sale: $58
_____________________________

Total Online Earnings in August: $ 495.41
Grand Total for August Earnings: $553.418


Through my Examiner column, which focuses on Baltimore SAHMs I have started a weekly series called Make Money Mondays which offers moms creative and legitimate ways to make money from home.

Ehow's Legit...Don't Say I Didn't Tell You So

By now you're probably thinking, "Enough about Ehow." But I just have to pass along proof behind my success and that of so many other stay-at-home moms. This month I published a whopping seven articles, and with three days still left until payout I'm already more than $20 over my next highest earning month. For the first time, I'll pass the $200 mark in a month. For about 4 hours worth of work, I'll make $200+ all while staying home with my daughter. Could there be anything better? Well, yes, I suppose I could be Maria aka Writergig who makes 5 to 7 my monthly earnings (and has obviously figured out the ehow secret)...but hey, I'm getting there!

And for anyone who still thinks eHow is a scam, not legit or whatever...Ehow got some major press this month. Both NBC and Time Magazine published articles on the success of eHow and its writers. Both articles point out what a great gig it is for moms who want to stay at home with their kids.

So...if you know something, anything about anything start writing for eHow. It's totally free to sign up and there's no referral program so I'm not making any money off referring you.

Recommended Reading:

Make Money Mondays: Ehow Pays Moms for their Expertise

Ehow Earnings: A SAHM Making Money Online

This is a huge month for me Ehow-wise. I've passed the $600 mark...total, not on the month. (Maybe one day!) That means in the six months I've been writing for Ehow, my articles have made me over $600!  For the last six months, I've been publishing my growing earnings on this blog. But this month I'm going to do something a little differently. I'm going to give you a few screen shots of my earnings so you can actually SEE the cash flow.


Before I get to the actual meat and potatoes there are a few things I need to get out in the open.

June was an extremely busy month for me. Besides the fact that we could finally get outside the second half of the month, my family spent most weekends away from home.

 I also started a few new freelance writing ventures in order to bring in additional streams of passive income. So while I've been concentrating on building my Squidoo lenses (with the intention of promoting my ehow articles, while making a little extra cash through affiliate sales) I've also been working hard to promote my eHow articles. 

All that being said I didn't write too much on Ehow in June. Here's how it breaks down:

12 New Articles
Average: 3/Week
Earnings for Articles Written 6/1-6/30: $6.77
June Articles Earning Money: 8/12

Here's why this is significant: even though it sounds low, $6.77 is almost what I made in both November and December. "So what?" you ask. In that amount of time I had 42 articles!!! 

NOTE: If you do not pass the $10 threshold on the year, you're docked a dollar. So I was actually only paid $7.20 for November & December. 

The point of all this is that my June articles are all written with a focus on keywords and SEO or search engine optimization. January was when I purchased an ebook by one of Ehow's top earners (well into the four figures) and when I noticed a significant jump in my earnings...and hence earning potential. I guess what I'm trying to say (in far too many words) is now that I know how to write eHow articles, and how to get them picked up by the search engines, I don't have to write as many in order to make money online. 

There's one other thing I want to point out and that is page views. You might think that the more page views an article has, the more it makes. What I've found is that is far from the truth. For example, my highest earning article has made $75.82 to date with 1,678 view. I have four other articles, each with more views than that, and they have only made me a combined $12.45 with two of them only earning $1.63 total (not to date, total)! By the way, at least one of the four I just described is a recipe. It just goes to show, that recipes don't do well on ehow. While someone may find your article useful, they're not interested in the ads on the page, they're solely interested in how to make xxxx. So topic, category, and ad relevance matter...a lot. 

What I'm focusing on now is promoting them so they can earn to their fullest potential. My husband thinks I'm crazy for biting off yet another project.  But I never feel overwhelmed because it's all freelance work. I write on my time. If I'm busy I don't have to write. If I'm blessed with a three hour nap I get two ehow articles published. I'm off to write...as my daughter is napping....finally!

Recommended Reading:

How to Earn Passive Income at eHow.com

Ehow Earnings Month by Month

Making Money Online: Building a Second Stream of Passive Residual Income

I've teetered with the idea for awhile, but I think I'm going to go ahead and make the jump and start calling myself a freelance writer. I've been doing lots of writing and making some decent money on eHow. Since I have that passive residual income coming in every month, I've decided to expand my horizons in the vast money-making Internet writing world.



I've started writing on Squidoo. It's a great website that basically allows you to create your own webpages or lenses, as they call them. In fact I got the grapic on the left from a wonderful lense about finding Squidoo Graphics. You can write about anything and everything. The best part is lensmasters (or writers) are encouraged to promote their other online work or websites. If you sell items on Ebay you can link to them or even make commission off promoting Amazon products that are related to your lense's topic.

Check out my first two lenses:

10 Baby Must Have Baby Products (+1 Bonus That Will Save Your Sanity)

The Best Printable Grocery Coupon Sites

Let me know what you think! I welcome the feedback since I really have no idea what I'm doing just yet. But I will and I'm hoping to create a second steady stream of residual income through Squidoo..

By the way, just like eHow, my Squidoo pen name is "NewMama".

Recommended Reading:
Making Money Online Writing for Ehow.com

How To Ehow