Writing for the sheer love of it...
RANT: First published at Fortitude
by peter petterson
The recent announcement that a new writing site's struggle to survive in the short to medium term could continue, will undoubtebly be thought provoking there. As a now member of that particular site, which I was aware of for a few weeks but had decided to sit and think about it, as they often say. I had made sufficient money from writing a commercial blog post on my 'The Green Planet blog' and had been paid out on Paypal. What should I do with my thirty odd dollars sitting in my Paypal account?
Well I made a commitment to invest on something online; I had not done that before. I have been ripped off before at Sidetick and a few other small online sites, and had my Adsense account disabled without any production of evidence that I had broken their TOS. If I had it would have been purely accidental because I'm basically an honest person. So why did I decide to invest in a writing site membership?
This particular site offered something that I have been looking for a number of years. I've been a member of quite a few blogsites over the years that have claimed you can write and earn a lot of money in the process. But earning money was not the prime reason I blogged; I enjoyed writing about the subjects that I was interested in. So in a way the new offer was too good to refuse under the circumstances. The money involved was profit from another writing venture and the modest joining fee was hardly a financial burden.
I have read their latest announcement that they were not intending to turn over and die, very interesting and indicative of a real determination to succeed by the present owners. Such an attitude could determine a members decision whether to continue or withdraw and seek an alternative.
During the last few weeks I have written a number of articles there, have been reimbursed for my initial outlay and now find myself myself in the black. So seriously, why would I want to quit at this stage when there are still guarantees to earn from quality writing? It is actually a strong incentive to continue writing at that site: to research, write well and edit. I intend to do so as long as there 'is' an incentive to continue writing and a solid guarantee that payments for writing, reviewing and refering continue.
While the TOS of the site may differ from when I joined up a few weeks ago, the reasons given why this has been necessary have been convincing in my personal opinion.
I will continue to promote the site in my own way as I have done during the last few weeks, and will explain why the owners consider changes necessary. It is better to have a lighter weighted golden goose, than a dead frozen chicken.
What alternatives to this site are out there in the writesphere and blogesphere? None that I am aware of at this stage. There are still those blogsites out there that continue to inanely claim a fortune can still be made from blogging, despite the lack of credibility and validity of such people, who probably claim the existence of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, and that Elvis was still in the building as well. I still come across other so-called writing sites that are no more than social network sites — not that there is anything wrong with these sites — but I object to the claim they are genuine money making sites, when in fact they only offer cents for impressions, or offer less for non-north American members. I find the latter really objectionable because it is supposed to be the World Wide Web after all.
I will continue to work at my writing site and hope the practise will improve my writing skills and result in some more modest but satisfactory income. I will continue to write for the sheer love of it!
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