Working On An Internet Click Farm...
If you're like me, you love to write. Making money on the internet through writing on a blog site isn't all it's cracked up to be. There are plenty of frustrations along the way, and the pay is lousy.
I've come to the realization that my attempts to make money on the internet are nothing more than me just clicking for pennies. You have to engage in heavy social media activity, which is a major drain on your time, and the results can be counted in pennies. I spend an hour to two hours a day engaging in Tweeting. That used to be fun before I started using it for money.
My first few attempts at writing for money were disappointing. At Triond, I started getting hits and literally only earned a couple quarters for a couple thousand views. Doing the math, that just didn't add up to me. I mean, I know they must make money, but if I'm not being properly compensated for my writing, I'm being taken advantage of by them.
Then, there was iWriter. This site has you writing for others, but the site is predatory towards us writers. We write for them and depend on our ratings for a couple bucks a story. They can pay us and torch our ratings or even just steal our stories, which happened to me. The site compensated me for that, but I decided the stress of maintaining my Elite Level for such little pay was pointless.
Then, I headed for Bubblews, and they paid better than any of them. A penny a read, comment or like for my articles. The down side is you are in a click farm. If you want those likes, you better be liking them back. So, that's a couple hours minimum for that. Don't ask me what they wrote. I barely looked at the title. Just like and go, like and go. If I read it all, that would double my time.
I don't feel good about that, but that's how it's done. I used to read and comment at first, but two things I noticed. First was it didn't make a great difference if I commented at all. secondly, they responded with "nice post" or other versions of a comment that showed they didn't read but wanted to throw a penny my way.
Bubblews paid all the time, but there's something about the place that has always annoyed me. It's not really a blog site in the purest form. You don't get to track and monitor your posts to see how many views they get. It's a "McBlogger" type site where you have to keep churning out more to keep the money coming in. You can't feature your favorite articles on your page. Plus, sharing an article more than once on social media seems to be a violation of the rules as I understand them.
They are making good money there off of us writers. The money rolls in from ad revenue, but I wonder how long until their "bubble" bursts. It appears to be starting. The format change that happened earlier this year took the emphasis away from the blog aspect as it moved towards the social media side. Then, they have started hiding views from us so we don't know how many we are getting, and my pay went down a good 30% or so.
They want us to click, click, click, and I won't be doing that. I will use the site for basic posts now, and write articles elsewhere. To use good articles there would be a waste of my time. If something goes viral, I know I can't count on them to share the revenue fairly with me any more. So, why would I allow them to use me? I can write decent stuff that isn't too wordy, and I don't mind sharing it. They still pay better than most, but I won't be taken advantage of.
This led me to Daily Two Cents, where they say they don't pay as well and have rules. Fine with me. I want the articles I write to have a fair chance and to know how much each article is being read. Problem was I submitted an article and used the tags their page suggested and was rejected for using too many links. I had no links in that story. It was on their end.
What's going to have to happen is what should have happened a long time ago. I need to monetize my own blog and make some money that way. This just seems like it will end up being the best way for me to maintain complete control over my writing, know how each article is performing AND make money.
Social media plays a part in generating those "clicks for pennies" I get, but I'm not doing so well on my books so far. I can't even give away copies of them at this point, which is beyond frustrating. However, I engage in Retweeting for an hour or two every day. I wonder if I'm just caught in a circle with other Retweeters who aren't getting very far with their stuff either.
I've come to realize that I am in the "click farm" and it's a terrible feeling. I get frustrated and angry enough that I'm sometimes yelling at my computer screen. I don't like sitting there liking stories I could care less about or dealing with browser crashes from all the Retweets. This is what is happening as I click for my daily pennies.
I think it was Max Kaiser who spoke of the "Casino Gulag" system that the powers that be are creating. We click all day for our money. I know a lot of people are doing that on Bubblews, especially from Aisia. They seem to be the ones being preyed upon to try and make a buck at iWriter and those other sites too. I feel sorry for them in a way, but I'm in the same boat with them.
I want to write and have it be read by people. So, I keep trying as it becomes less fun and less fulfilling. It's a matter of being more effective with my writing and not being taken advantage of. I think I can get there, but I need to keep working on it.
