The Un-Examinered Life

I’ve done it again. I’ve given up on another writing assignment.

I will no longer be writing for Examiner.com. I haven’t formally resigned or anything like that. I’ve just written my last article for them.

I’ll get some polite nudges from them that I haven’t published, and I assume they’ll just eventually cut me off.

It’s just not worth my time.

When I joined some three plus years ago I read the stories of authors who were making hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month writing there. I never even got close.

I currently have three writing titles with Examiner.com: Richmond Bible Examiner, Richmond Pro-Life Examiner, and Richmond Performing Arts Examiner.

You’d think I’d be raking in the bucks.

To be fair, for a while I thought I just wasn’t putting in enough effort.

So, in July, I make a decision to try and make it work. I published around 40 articles.

I “made” less than half what I charge per hour…for the whole month. That’s a little embarrassing to admit.

Still, I thought I could figure out how to work the system. Obviously, I could not.

Part of the reason I wrote over there was to have an outlet for some of the things I wanted to write about, but not necessarily here at The Write Side. There’s value in that.

But when you consider that in the 40 or so articles I wrote, I was focusing on Christians in Iraq, the Middle East, and Hobby Lobby, among others…all things that were screaming in our headlines and that’s all the attention I got?

Maybe there’s a way to work the system. Maybe I was doing it wrong. I suspect not.

In my earliest days of writing on the Internet, I wrote for Themestream. That was a good deal. Especially when my work got picked up by a national medial outlet, which it frequently did. But because it paid so well, the Themestream model didn’t last very long.

Now, there are writers out there who are willing to work for Examiner and are content with monthly earning the price of a Starbucks Latte. Or writers who will follow the Craigslist ads and work for a penny a word, or work for the “exposure.”

Sorry, I’m a better writer than that.

If Examiner works for you, then by all means continue. It’s obviously working for someone, or the site wouldn’t still be around.

For me, it’s too much effort for too little reward.

Granted, I’ve not exactly hit on the formula that provides the reward I need to do this writing thing full time. But part of that process is knowing what doesn’t work.

Thomas Edison said of working on the light bulb. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

I’m not sure I’ve tried 10,000 ways, but I haven’t found a magic formula to make this writing thing work for me beyond write, write, write.

But not for free.

The Un-Examinered Life

Leave a Reply

Where to Find Me

mrfletcher58

Archives

Comments

Admin