Create a Spreadsheet to Keep Track on Wizzley and Beyond

1. Visit Google Drive.
2. Ignore the messy pages on the screen. It won't render properly unless viewed via Excel, or an equivalent program.  If you don't have Excel, then download Apache OpenOffice Calc here.
3. Run your cursor over the page to reveal the Google toolbar at the top.
4. Select the second icon from the right, labelled 'Download'.

5. Follow instructions on your screen - different according to each browser.
6. Wait for the Wizzley Excel Spreadsheet to download.
7. Save your document to wherever you wish it to be saved.

1. Open your online writers' spreadsheet in Excel, or an equivalent program.
2. Click on the tab entitled 'Jo's Notes' (unless it opens there already).
3. Panic at the wall of text.
4. Don't panic. Grab a towel. Don't you people read Douglas Adams?

The idea is that you turn this spreadsheet into something useful to yourself. I've produced a fully working model, but it was all designed on the understanding that you'd build on that framework, customizing it for your needs.

Therefore these notes will act as a run through for those proficient in Excel, so you know what I've done and where all the formulas are hiding.

Not great with Excel?  Don't fret. Every formula is there. The spreadsheet works largely automatically, with you regularly adding a few figures here and there.  In those notes, I've clearly outlined precisely where to update things, and what information is required.

It may all look rather daunting at first - particularly if you've never used Excel before - but I promise you that it's all very straight-forward. Just work your way through, page by page, and you'll wonder what all the fuss was about by the finish.

And it will amount to a very useful resource, as you build your writing career upon it.

1. Open the tab entitled 2015.
2. Open the tab entitled 2014.
3. Marvel at their abject similarity, give or take a date.
4. Remove the example figures that I added to the white cells in the table.
5. DO NOT TOUCH THE PINK CELLS.
6. Ignore five if you want to change the color, because pink really isn't you. Otherwise DO NOT IGNORE FIVE. (Even you. You know who you are.)
7. Message me to help you fix the table, because you messed with the pink cells.

This should be very self-explanatory.  This is where you'll build up a picture of what avenues are bringing in the cash. If you've just begun with this internet writing malarkey, then it'll all look very depressing for a while.

On the bright side, when you've been at it for a year or two, you'll look back upon those earliest tables and gasp in delight and wonder. Future morale boosts start here.  For now, you're being future you's best friend.

As you earn commission on any of your affiliate links, then type the amount into the requisite box.  Formulas already added in the background will automatically update in several different places.

Therefore, these are probably the most important cells you'll complete within your spreadsheet.

In the example above (replicated in the workbook that you just downloaded and should be looking at now), I've chucked some figures in so you can see how it all works.

• You earned $1.00 from Amazon in August 2014. Hence the cell where they meet has $1.00 typed into it. 
• You earned $0.50 from Chitika in September 2014. Hence that is updated too.
• Ditto the 20c from Zazzle in June 2014.

Naturally these should be removed to make way for your real earning amounts.  You cannot break the spreadsheet by adding sums into the white boxes, so please do feel free to play nicely with it.

Your monthly earnings page won't look like much yet.

But mine has three and a half years' worth of pretty graphs, demonstrating without a doubt that everything is heading in the right direction.

I've reproduced a snapshot of how yours will look, when it's in full swing, with enough years of data to make it meaningful.

This tab was a latecomer to my general melee of Things Recorded To Make Me Look Organized. Without a doubt, it's my most valuable page of all.

A wise woman named HollieT once mopped up my tears mid-panic attack, and informed me that I was doing it wrong. I was mapping my affiliate earnings month by month, then worrying myself stupid over the year's natural dips and rises. If January hadn't brought in as much as December, I was a mess of anxiety.

Hollie pointed out that the only true comparison is between what you earned this month, and what you earned during the same calendar month last year, and the year before, and... well, you get the general picture.

Hence the monthly earnings tab was born. It calms me down better than a pacifier does a baby. I can see, in glorious technicolor, how well I'm doing.  And I'm doing very well.

You won't have to do anything on your version of this page. It's one of the many things automatically updated, as you feed figures into the table in the last tab.

As with the annal accounts tables, the white cells here are awaiting your input. The pink cells are full of formulas, doing automatic stuff, therefore should be left well alone. 

I've also chucked in some random figures, so that you can see how it all fits together. Play nicely with those, then remove them, when you're ready to do this for real. Your true statistics will take their place, and automatically update both the overall columns and the lovely graphs too.

Have a good look at your profile page.  If you have less than nineteen articles already written on Wizzley, then have a look at mine instead.

Understanding how new Wizzles appear in your portfolio is imperative, if you want to follow what I've set up under the 'Wizzley Articles' tab on your spreadsheet. Let me demonstrate with the reality and the planned pages right alongside.

Note the correlation between the first six cells on the spreadsheet, and the actual articles as viewed from my Wizzley profile.

Ignore the planned column, as that's exactly what it says on the packet. Though you can see that the next article planned is 'Wizzley spreadsheet', which is precisely what you're reading right now. When this is posted, the public face of my profile will alter in a very predictable way.

• Wizzley Spreadsheet will appear at the top of the first column, above the Llanrwst one.
• At the top of the second column will be an article exploring the song meanings on the Manic Street Preachers album The Holy Bible.
• At the top of the third column will be a Halloween Wizzle highlighting Frankenstein costumes for children.
• The George Edalji article will slip back into the first column, where it will occupy the seventh row position, beneath a Wizzle about history in the 4th dimension.

Because Wizzley galleries operate in known ways, we can always predict how our profiles will look at any given time. We can arrange certain articles to publish alongside others. We can ensure that we've adequately mixed and matched our subject titles or, if we're writing for niche topics, that everything looks very pretty.

Most of all, we can ensure that we never embarrass ourselves by accidentally aligning potentially inappropriate pieces.  Just use your imagination.

This is only relevant if you're actually doing the Fifty Article Challenge on Wizzley.

If so, then the whole page will be very self-explanatory. It's identical to the one which I periodically screenshot to update the Wizzley forum with my progress.

If you're not doing the Challenge, then right-click the tab - where it says 'Wizzley Challenge' - and select 'delete' from the pull down menu.  All gone!