Hit the Panic Button!

Gotta start somewhere...
I think I've glossed over the fact that I'm not exactly rolling in the dough with my Examiner gig - and that's okay, I feel like I've got to start somewhere and this is a good way to gain exposure. However, I was wandering through the Examiner Community boards - where the Examiner writers can go to vent, troubleshoot, seek advice, etc. and happened upon a topic that sent my heart down to my toes...

Plus or minus?
The initial ponderment in the writer's topic was regarding whether or not writing for Examiner was a boon or a detriment when trying to get other writing jobs. Several individuals claimed their affiliation with Examiner cost them several jobs, which I find CRAZY! And it sent me swirling into panic mode. Shouldn't a person be judged on their caliber of writing, not who they are writing for? So now I'm freaking out...

Where do I go from here?

On the one hand I really enjoy the freedom I have in writing for the Examiner. I like that my topic is so broad that the sky is practically the limit. Feedback would be awesome, but I knew going in that's not the way this worked. I don't like the idea of flooding my Examiner page with articles simply to generate traffic. I want to create quality content that I can be proud of. I want to be able to send people to my Examiner page and feel confident that what they're going to see are well written and well thought out articles.

On the other hand, I don't want to write about just anything (i.e. flooding my page with oodles of articles), I want to write about things that matter, things that could legitimately be of use to another parent or family. Was I wrong to worry only about me and my little corner of the world and thinking this is a legitimate starting off point for me?

Tell me true
Who knows if anyone is actually reading this yet, but if you are, I would greatly appreciate your honest feedback. Do I have what it takes to move beyond my Examiner page? What do you think about what I'm posting? Am I being naive in thinking what I'm writing and how I'm writing is more important than who I'm writing for? I'd put this out there in Examiner forum land, but frankly my stomach gets all jittery just thinking about the responses I would get.

I've decided where I'm going to submit my Kibbe series to, I guess that'll tell me something...Moral of the story: I think I'm going to avoid the forums for awhile...