So Now What?

If you've been reading this blog, (don't you have anything better to do with your time?), you've been following my "progress" as an online author.

I started posting articles on InfoBarrel and Bubblews, and quickly concentrated solely on Bubblews.  The pay was much higher, and it was insanely easier to write for Bubblews than InfoBarrel.  Bubblews was fun, and I could earn a bit of loot for my daily rants.

Then the bottom fell out of that scenario: it became apparent to me that Bubblews was a scam site, and that folks who were crowing about the massive amounts of money they were earning there were shills.  Bummer!

It was hard to leave Bubblews, and I still tried to tease a few payments out of them for a month or so, but eventually I had no choice but to admit that I had been conned.

So I focused my attentions on FullofKnowledge.  It was still easier to write here than InfoBarrel, and the editors seemed like a nice group of folks.  I didn't like the fact that my articles would be edited, (yeah, that's an ego problem I admit), but I could live with it, and many of the writers there praised the site for the amount of money they made on it.

But FoK, (as we call it), had its issues too.  First and foremost, it seemed to be a one man show.  A guy named Aaron owned the site, and rules, (article length, minimum payment amounts), seemed to change solely on his whim.  I spent much more time per article on FoK than I ever did on Bubblews, but I never seemed to earn enough to meet the minimum payout amount.

But I continued to plug away on FoK, until September, when Aaron opened a third site, (he also owns ExpertsPages), call PostAnyArticle.  PAA, as it's known, had NO EDITING!  Whipee!  You could post just about anything you wanted, as long as it wasn't pornographic, it was in English, and it contained at least 100 words.

Now that was my kinda writing site!  I started hammering away on the articles and rants, such that when September payments came out, although FoK still paid me zippo, PAA paid me about 2 bucks.

Hooray!  This was my first payment since Bubblews started stiffing me.

October was even better, as I got $3.20 from PAA, and $6.80 from FoK.  Woo Hoo!!

However, just as it appears I was finally settling into a writing routine, suddenly all the FoK editors started openly criticizing PAA.  And trust me, they weren't holding anything back!  It seems that PAA had become a pariah to everyone except Aaron, and the editors were in open rebellion against it.

Sigh ....

So what is a frustrated writer to do?  I looked at posting at InfoBarrel again, but they're just too darn strict.  But now I'm also worried about putting all my articles on websites that are run by just one guy.  What if he gets a bug up his butt, and decides to close them all down?  What if he changes the rules YET AGAIN, this time in a way that adversely affects me?

I guess what I'm gonna have to do is write on this blog, which kinda sucks, because that means I won't get any loot for it.  And don't worry; I'm not gonna monetize this blog.  It's too complicated, I'm too lazy, and the amount of money involved, (pennies), just ain't worth it.

So for the near future, until something else changes once again, (and you know it will!), arph001 will be posting his articles here.  And Phred Phin, (the imaginary talking fish in my head), thanks you profusely for your support and understanding!