So Much Work — For What?

Yesterday I joined some site that was recommended to me by a user.  For the purpose of this article I’ll call it ‘Crunch’.

Crunch seemed the standard online publishing site; one of those wordpress thingies.

It wasn’t.

It was one of those do a thesis, wait until some mod gets around to reading it.  Then, get into deep back and forth with mod, who not only alters your work but wants you to edit along with making  demands.

You know, whole heap of work for a few pennies.

You write the item, they pick and twist and demand, and if and when the Mod is satisfied you’ll get a penny.

When you write an item and you wait for it to be published, and get some feedback from a mod, you might, at first feel, ‘in for a penny in for a pound’.

You pinch and perk and spruce your item, assume it is a one off.

Nope.

The Mod starts to annoy about the images you used that they demanded.

Now 99% of all writing sites don’t do this.  You use whatever picture you want and if someone objects, they take it down. End of argument.

Further, if you were paid +$100 per item upfront, and there was some argument about the image, and they wanted you to change it,  okay.

But its just the same penny,  but this time for a bag of work…hours of work for one item.  Constant back and forth with the mod as if she’s your new best friend.

And then you realise…  maybe after the first ‘correction’  you have to make, or after changing your photo or image; “why?”

Why am I wasting time I could use to write items for sites I know and trust to play a back and forth with what is more likely to prove a scam site or collapse on itself after a month or two?

I have been on many sites over the years and have learned that the most annoyingly picky ones are those that don’t pay, that go down, and that rip you off.

I have experienced sites which demand you rewrite, then reject, sites which have an item pending for days, then reject.  If it were just 300 quick words on tofu it wouldn’t be an issue… but it isn’t.

Picky sites can’t pay.  They need users/ contributors  but can’t pay them.

The way they fool the writer is to delay publication.   Instead of the sit and wait two days, you wait one, and then a Mod pops up to give you ‘homework’.

The belief is that by the time you finish the homework, the site will have made a few pennies and can publish your item.

The truth is that they have no money, no way to get money, and the few items they have published,  produce money aren’t making any.

The writer who wastes time on these sites is cutting a hole in his or her own pocket.  For the time wasted ‘correcting’ or ‘changing’ or ‘editing’ could be used writing and publishing on another site.

The wise writer can do the one or two corrections but when it gets to the picky nature of the image?  Forget it.

Don’t waste time on these sites.