I missed the boat, did you?
The gravy train has pulled out of the station
Happy Friday,
If someone told you they’d pay you $1000 per month to copy and paste three articles per week from one site to another, would you do it?
A lot of people did. I was not one of them.
That’s what News Break was offering. Was. Past tense. Now they’re not. The gravy train has pulled out of the station. I missed the boat. Did you?
Reasons are stories we tell ourselves…
I didn’t get around to applying until last month. They still haven’t responded to my application, but that’s not unique to me. Some people who applied in January haven’t heard back yet, either.
Know why I didn’t apply earlier? No good reason.
I had lots of reasons at the time. Too busy. I work in ecommerce and it was holiday season. I was rebuilding a shopping cart for a client. I’ll do it later, when work quiets down, I told myself. Lots of reasons, none of them good.
Could I have made the time? Of course. That’s the thing about time.
We never have time, we make time. That’s how time works.
Reasons are mostly just stories we tell ourselves. Strangely, we usually don’t see when our reasons were dumb until a door closes. We hear the door close and the lock click and then realize our “reasons” were kind of dumb. Hindsight is often 20/20
Now, apparently, they’re paying more in line with what Medium pays. Their new contract goes into effect March 31, and prohibits writers from talking about pay. Which means no one will know what they pay unless they write there. And they’ll only know what “they” get paid, not necessarily what anyone else gets paid.
Loyalty is a funny beast…
Funny thing about us humans is we’re more loyal to our beliefs than most anything else. The more someone tries to convince us otherwise, the harder we defend our beliefs. What’s worse, we staunchly believe that’s not us!
We insist we’re open minded while slamming the door shut on beliefs that contradict ours. The psychology of human behavior is bizarre and fascinating, isn’t it?
When News Break was new and people were talking about it on Medium, some writers said they’re going to be loyal to Medium. That was not a two way street. Obviously.
People are seeing a 50% drop in views at Medium right now, and it’s not just the writers who were struggling all along. There are writers with 20K+ readers who’ve lost half their views. I wrote about that yesterday. [here, if you’re curious]
An experiment…
When one door closes, another opens. There is no shortage of opportunities. The shortage is our ability to see them. Our “reasons” get in the way.
I think I might try a little experiment. See if I can get on News Break under the new terms. I just signed up for Vocal, too. I’m kind of curious to compare the three. Medium vs Vocal vs News Break. Might be interesting.
Are you on any of the other writing platforms? Maybe there might be some room and opportunity to help each other grow? I don’t know — just thinking out loud for now, but I feel an idea brewing. Interested?
:)
“Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door.”
Emily Dickinson
What I wrote this week…
If you liked this, click the heart because it helps me know what you’re enjoying.
Thanks and have a great weekend.
xo,
Linda
I never miss the boat because I never get on the boat. There are sharks in them thar waters.
I do not write on other platforms. I write at Medium for the pleasure of it...and not for the $. If I depended on the little bit of money I earn there each month, I would have starved years ago!
Unlike many folks, I am in a good place, financially. No, do not hit me up for a loan - that's what banks are for. And relatives. LOL. If you hit up your friends for $, you are likely to have fewer friends...try that experiment, and you'll find out for yourself, probably. Hope what I wrote doesn't sound too snarky.
Following my Great Depression era parents' advice when I was a child and then adolescent served me well, i.e., put aside a little bit of money every pay check for a rainy day. Save for retirement. Pay extra on your mortgage every month to retire it before 30 years is up. I did all of those things. Now, I'm comfortable in retirement.
re: "Funny thing about us humans is we’re more loyal to our beliefs than most anything else. The more someone tries to convince us otherwise, the harder we defend our beliefs. What’s worse, we staunchly believe that’s not us!"
A truer statement was never written! Brava.