"I found a new way.
Well, I found a new way, baby! [x2]

No, no.
Then suddenly you know:
You're never going home.

You're never, [x6]
You're never going home!
You're not Ulysses,
Baby!"
 — Franz Ferdinand; Ulysses; Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (2009)

I'm tired of earning a few cents a day (if all goes well) for my writing efforts. I definitely need to be pulling in at least two dollars (or more) an hour to start with. To that end, I've been looking for (and applying to) job postings looking for a ghostwriter, copyedititor or technical writer. However, I think I should probably take a few online courses (maybe see if Udemy has anything worthwhile) first.

People willing to pay you $1/hour, or even $8/hour, but not more, for Web coding are shit. Plain and simple. If they're not willing to pay you real amounts of money, fuck 'em. You don't need 'em and any song and dance they have about how you're going to get "exposure" is nothing but lies. Find better clients.

AFAICT, pretty much nobody ever made a real amount of money throwing writing on the writing sites and waiting for money to come in. One of the most successful fiction authors of whom I know, John Scalzi, posted his first novel (which was an experiment on his part to see if he could do one) as a shareware novel and encouraged people to send in a dollar if they liked it. He collected $4000 over a few years — definitely an endorsement of his writing skills! — but that's still not a living wage. He came up with other venues for this and ended up publishing it for real.

When I hire writing interns, I make a point of paying them $25/hour. This is about the minimum you need to make to have any kind of functional life. I'd set my sights on $25/hour for now and then escalate when you start making near that.

 — A Successful author friend of mine, from whom I've been getting sound advice (including on how to be a good Capitalist)

I don't disagree. $2/hour is absolute minimum in order for me to scrape by (and that's without car insurance, fuel, health/medical cover, etc.) with naught but a roof over my head and food on my table. $5-10/hour is probably more realistic. (Keep in mind that $1.00 USD is worth approximately R15 ZAR.)

I feel I should be paid oodles for my time, effort and words, but people are cheap/stingy and don't do what I want them to. (Trust me on this; I've tried doing those things like Patreon and BMC. It hasn't worked as well as I wanted.) I guess it's because any primate with a keyboard and Internet connection can post any drivel they want, the signal from the talented gets lost amongst all the noise. That or it's Dunning-Kruger at work: The talented aren't appreciated by the talentless. Maybe it's the artist's conundrum of being dead first being a prerequisite of earning anything for one's art. it could just be a marketing/self-promotion problem (id est, a lack of those skills/talents on my part). Whatever the magic is, I don't (yet) have it.

"I absolutely am not going to lead people on for cash, resell them the same dumb shit, start wolf-fucking everyone in the room and then write a book and have a sex scandal."
 — Someone who currently writes humourous pieces for free (and writes well) whom I tried to persuade to join Pub0x and Noise, to no avail. He accused me of trying to fleece people through Findom (which he doesn't recognise as a legitimate kink)

Well, what are you going to do for fun and profit, then, prostitute yourself to Big Tech firms like Google and Facebook or MNCs like McDonalds and Coca Cola? (That's pretty much what I'm looking at as my future. It gives me serious fucking anxiety about the compromises I'll have to make since, at this stage of my life, I literally cannot afford such luxuries as ethics, morals and principles.)

It's your call, man. Do what you feel is right. Personally, I'm just trying (and failing) to earn a living from my talents. I used to be paid for writing (although it was code). I'm just heading in a different direction. If you want to waste your time and effort on dead-end sites (like FB and Fartloaf) that don't compensate you for that, I can't/won't stop you. I mean, people don't even have to put in their own crypto on Pub0x and they can earn some for reading your stuff! What have you got to lose, your reputation? Pah!

Nae Kin', nae Quin! Nae Laird! Nae Fiat! We will na be fooled agin!

Perhaps when I'm a well-respected and high-earning writer living in near-solitary splendor with an SO, I will be at a point in my life where I can state, without irony, that I've managed to filter out (most of) the annoyances. (Key phrase: "near-solitary splendour". I have too many people — and, consequently, too much crap with which to contend — in my life.) Honestly, I'm done with being close to other people in my life (at least for the foreseeable future). I lived on my own for a while and the only people to whom I talked were my landlady and her other tenants, in passing. It was great. I felt lonelier in the company of other people than I ever did on my own.

Other people drain my life force, like Rogue from X-Men (although, I wouldn't say "no" to Anna Paquin in leather/Spandex ...). Some Goth kittens would be nice too. However, I'd prefer a wolfette.

Post Thumbnail image: Rob Anybody, by Michael Nolan/John Rex