Pinar Tarhan, Author at Addicted to Writing

Castle starring Nathan Fillion & Stana Katic.

I’m a huge fan of the Castle TV series, a wonderfully entertaining crime/drama/thriller with a good amount of comic relief thrown in.

Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Two Guys and a Girl) plays Richard Castle, the author of over 20 best-selling mystery books and the cool singer father of a teenage daughter.

Castle starts consulting NYPD with their murder cases, first as an obligation and then voluntarily, as he uses the cases and his relationship with the beautiful cop Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) for inspiration.

This article focuses on how fun Castle’s life is (excluding the murders) and how writers can benefit from it.

The Glamor:

Richard Castle lives in a stylish and spacious loft in New York. He is pretty well-off and he has all the gadgets needs.

We see great parties (book launches, charity events and more), fancy restaurants…If we writers ever need motivation, it doesn’t get more fun than this.

The Reality and Humanity

Yes, Rich is rich but he is no Tom Cruise or Donald Trump. He is not in limos all the time, he takes of his teenage daughter Alexis (Molly C. Quinn) and his highly active, actress mother (Susan Sullivan).

But even he is constantly pestered by his publisher. Well, you are never off the hook when it comes to deadlines, even if you are a best-selling writer.

Oh, another part of the (fun) reality: real life authors occasionally guest star as Castle’s regular poker bodies. They talk about novels, fiction, writing and they help Castle brainstorm about real murder cases.

The Murder and The Mystery

I mostly write dramas and romantic comedies. But it is not because I don’t want to write mystery thrillers. I love them. But it takes more than a good idea: attention to detail, hard work and sometimes spending time with some real gruesome facts all add to a masterpiece. Castle might be a fictional character but remember, he is written by real writers who come up with a good story week after week. The show is currently in its 3rd season. So we watch Castle gather clues, brainstorm and work on both real and imaginary cases. Each episode is great for inspiration.

The Characterization and Chemistry:

Castle has great characters. They regular cast all add comic relief. The relationships between Castle and his daughter, his mother, partner/crush/cop Kate Beckett, friends, Beckett’s friends, the captain and his relationships with the suspects…Castle is a good combination of characters and plots that all fit nicely together. It has good amount of clichés but more than enough originality to compensate for them.

The Gadgets

Shows like playing with technology but in this day and age, Castle’s everyday gadget is more than affordable. He has a good phone with internet connection. He can google stuff right at the crime scene.

However he can turn his house into a Frankenstein mode, fence with his daughter or play with laser toy guns in a sci-fi mood. The toys money can buy…

Social Media

It is a very relevant show. Characters joke and talk about tweeting. And if a model suggests she sat next to Perez Hilton (yes, this happened in one episode) on the plane as an alibi, Castle can check the blog during interrogation.

The Fun

Oh, and it shows you a good time. You see family, the writing world, murder department, romance and friendship all in one. He is also full of information on everything. Having written over 20 bestsellers, he has done his research. A lot. And the one-liners are also pretty entertaining.

Check out this show that is based on this fun-loving writer. It might be as inspirational as it is entertaining.

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Castle starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic

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make money online, making money online — image via googlepagerankupdate.org

Monetizing websites & blogs is very popular topic. How can it not be? More blogs and websites are created every day. And more often than not, they are created to earn an income. Even for the ones who are not in it solely for the money, earning becomes a perk. Let’s face it, money is a strong motivator, especially if it can be made doing something we love.

It’s a never-ending research. I’ve been blogging since 2009 and I still stop to read articles on how-to-monetize. And I do occasionally stumble upon a new trend or a monetizing option or site I haven’t heard of or tried yet.There are tons of places for getting banner ads, in-text ads, image or video ads. Hey, you can add affiliate links. There are also product-reviewing sites. You can create and sell your own products…

Unfortunately, the monetizing opportunities are not as endless as they may seem and just like every rose has its thorn, a monetizing option comes with its restrictions.

Below are 6 problems you can encounter while you are trying to make money with your sites:

Traffic: Yes, traffic and clicks mean you make more money. Traffic improves with your efforts so you do make more money with more traffic. The problem? Some websites do not sign up with you unless you have a certain amount of traffic. Some simply get you in the waiting list and say they will contact you when you reach their quota.

Examples: Text Link Ads, Review Me

Minimum Payouts: Adsense is really popular. It is easy to use and it belongs to Google. So the popularity makes sense. The downside? The minimum payout is $100. And reaching $100 is not that easy. Just like Adsense, there are a lot of sites whose minimum payouts change between $50 and $100. Now, experts advise experimenting for a couple of months to see which advertising method works best. But think about how much time it takes to build the necessary traffic, add the experimental period…and there is a chance you will have to wait for a long time to see your first payout.

Traffic Generation Rules: One of the most popular methods is link exchanges. You place your blog on traffic exchange sites and you exchange traffic with other blogs. Or simply you review other sites to earn credits and the sites show your site in proportion to credit earned. Traffic can lead to more unique visitors, more fans, potential sales… Yes, we love traffic. But, Google Adsense says on its terms and conditions that you can’t use this method. So it doesn’t pay you before $100, it limits your ways for traffic generation and it can decide not to pay you if at all if it realizes you are disobeying the rules.

Payment Methods: It is weird that in the age of PayPal, there are lots of websites that do not include PayPal as how you can receive your revenue. You still need to wait for the check in the mail. Not very progressive, is it? There are usually costs for sending it, not the mention the time you need to wait if you actually do live far away.

Relevance of the ads/link opportunities: Almost all advertising sites ask you to fill in the details for your blog and then choose a category. But after you took the time to describe your blog perfectly, you notice that the ads showing have nothing to do with what you are writing about. Or you wait for a link opportunity to make a quick buck. The idea is that you place a link in your writing along with the description of the product/service/site required. I signed up with payperpost. Problems? I get offers about laser surgery. What was my blog about? Well, let me just say it has nothing to do with eyes or any sort of medical thing.

Language of The Ads: Sometimes no matter how specifically you define your target audience or carefully stress that your blog is in English, you might get ads in an other language depending on your country of origin.

Monetizing your blog or website will always be tricky. My suggestion is to read terms and conditions and their requirements carefully before experimenting. As you get more traffic, gain more authority and your reputation spreads, you will have the chance to deal with sponsors directly. You can put a price tag on your advertising slots. Until then, be prepared for some frustration.