If you love stories about railways and/or the American Civil War. The Book Stealing the General is well worth the read.
Book Review - Stealing the General
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
HubPages On the Back Burner
For a few weeks now HubPages has gone to the back burner in my life.
At the beginning of September things got a little busy for me.
The employment issue worked its way through. I have found and plan to start my graduate studies in a few weeks and the health issues seem to be receeding.
So what has happened to my HubPages account, well basically being dormant does you as a writer no favors. It took about one week for my readership of hubs to fall from four digits to double digits per week. The world of the the online writer should have the Roman slave whispering in the ear of the vain, self impressed writer, "Readership is fleeting." much as they warned the heroic general of his glory in victorious battles.
My Hubscore has also slumped a little, though with less variation than when I posted articles. At it's height it was at 96, now I slowly fluctuate in the 84-87 area.
My evergreen posts remain the most viewd, blindness, history and money are always popular. My experimental writing fairs less well.
So for the budding writer, be aware once started you must be able to keep up some sort of output. My Yahoo! viewings continue to rise steadily, so look to adding variety to your publishers
Don't spread yourself too thin, but make work specific to various publishers. That way when life, as it tends to do, interferes, you can weather the threat of reduced income.
At the beginning of September things got a little busy for me.
- With possible changes at work, I was looking into other areas to move my employment future.
- I was also looking into going to graduate school to take a Master of Arts in History.
- I also had some health issues which were taking up lots of time and effort.
The employment issue worked its way through. I have found and plan to start my graduate studies in a few weeks and the health issues seem to be receeding.
So what has happened to my HubPages account, well basically being dormant does you as a writer no favors. It took about one week for my readership of hubs to fall from four digits to double digits per week. The world of the the online writer should have the Roman slave whispering in the ear of the vain, self impressed writer, "Readership is fleeting." much as they warned the heroic general of his glory in victorious battles.
My Hubscore has also slumped a little, though with less variation than when I posted articles. At it's height it was at 96, now I slowly fluctuate in the 84-87 area.
My evergreen posts remain the most viewd, blindness, history and money are always popular. My experimental writing fairs less well.
So for the budding writer, be aware once started you must be able to keep up some sort of output. My Yahoo! viewings continue to rise steadily, so look to adding variety to your publishers
Don't spread yourself too thin, but make work specific to various publishers. That way when life, as it tends to do, interferes, you can weather the threat of reduced income.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Halfway to the First Millenium!
Today I passed the 500 views mark on my Yahoo! Contributor Network pages.
This comes a little over three months after my first post on July 6, 2011.
Since then I have made 43 posts and earned a few dollars from a couple of posts which were paid up front. Those upfront payments don't count towards views, so I have 40 posts counting towards views.
Yahoo! Contributor Network pay out after each 1,000 views, so if I gain views at the same rate, we are looking for a payout around January or February 2012. That payment would give me $1.50.
I reckon that on average a post takes an hour, to produce so $1.50 for 40+ hours work over about six months and you can see that is not a lot of money.
This is not a grumble though, it is just to show the reality. I have produced a post every four days or so. That is not too many and I have produced several poems, not the best payers over all. A couple of restaurant reviews, those got the up front payments, political opinions and recipes. How to make money at the library was my best viewed work at this time, with over 10% of all views.
So if you are looking to make cash online writing is a good source, but you need either lots of time or lots of good content, to produce rapid results.
To read Make Cash at the Library CLICK HERE!
This comes a little over three months after my first post on July 6, 2011.
Since then I have made 43 posts and earned a few dollars from a couple of posts which were paid up front. Those upfront payments don't count towards views, so I have 40 posts counting towards views.
Yahoo! Contributor Network pay out after each 1,000 views, so if I gain views at the same rate, we are looking for a payout around January or February 2012. That payment would give me $1.50.
I reckon that on average a post takes an hour, to produce so $1.50 for 40+ hours work over about six months and you can see that is not a lot of money.
This is not a grumble though, it is just to show the reality. I have produced a post every four days or so. That is not too many and I have produced several poems, not the best payers over all. A couple of restaurant reviews, those got the up front payments, political opinions and recipes. How to make money at the library was my best viewed work at this time, with over 10% of all views.
So if you are looking to make cash online writing is a good source, but you need either lots of time or lots of good content, to produce rapid results.
To read Make Cash at the Library CLICK HERE!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Amazon Is Back in California
A few days ago, Amazon.com e-mailed me to ask me to return as an affilliate.
They claimed that the California Online Sales Tax Act was repealed by Governor Gerry Brown.
It appears repealed is a little strong of a term. Other sources say the Act is merely suspended in lieuu of a possible Federal Sales Tax Bill.
If the Federal Sales Tax passes it will supercede the Califfornia tax and if the Federal Tax fails Amazon will peobably pay the California tax.
Given that the Federal Sales tax may be argued unconstitutional and fail it seems possible California Sales tax will be paid by Amazon in the future, but it may be several years or a decade or more before we actually find out.
Until then I will resume my affiliate status, but continue to consider any income from that as extra pocket money. Of course now I also have to pay additional business taxes for a licence to be a fully legal affilliate.
Oh Well, nothing ventured nothing gained.
They claimed that the California Online Sales Tax Act was repealed by Governor Gerry Brown.
It appears repealed is a little strong of a term. Other sources say the Act is merely suspended in lieuu of a possible Federal Sales Tax Bill.
If the Federal Sales Tax passes it will supercede the Califfornia tax and if the Federal Tax fails Amazon will peobably pay the California tax.
Given that the Federal Sales tax may be argued unconstitutional and fail it seems possible California Sales tax will be paid by Amazon in the future, but it may be several years or a decade or more before we actually find out.
Until then I will resume my affiliate status, but continue to consider any income from that as extra pocket money. Of course now I also have to pay additional business taxes for a licence to be a fully legal affilliate.
Oh Well, nothing ventured nothing gained.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Upfront Cash or CPM Payments? What is right for you?
When writing on Yahoo! Contributor Network you have the choice of whether to submit items for upfront payment or to opt for Performance payment only.
What you choose is very important and affects how you will be paid.
With the cash upfront payment, you submit items for editorial consideration, this is then either accepted and a cash offer made or rejected for several reasons.
Yahoo! will turn down your work for several reasons, especially if the work is time sensitive such as news or sport based. Editorial consideration can take two or three weeks so you need to consider if you really need the two or three dollars quite so soon.
If you do want to sell your work outright, it appears, in my experience, that items sold for cash then never receive any performance payments. You only get the sun that was offered in the first place.
From my calculations performance payments or CPM (cost per thousand) in the first few months on Yahoo! Contributor Network receive a payment of about 1 cent per 5 or 6 views. so it can take a while for your cash to build if this is your main means of income from writing on the site. They pay out when your performance views reach about 1,500 views. ($1.50) In the early stages you get less cash per view than later as you get closer to 1,500 your payments are supposed to increase.
Taking cash if you can in the early stages seems to make sense if you can, but if you want to use those items to increase your CPM payments then maybe if they are good subjects that you are certain will bring in readers over time you may be better off foregoing the upfront payment and the editorial delays and opting for performance payments only. This means your work if you publish immediately for performance payment is available to readers for anything up to four weeks sooner than it would be if submitted for editorial review.
If it is a popular item you could have 2-300 views in that time if the item is well publicized.
That way as time passes your work will continue to contribute to your income for the longer term.
As you write more items your required number of CPM views actually falls, so one item requires 1,500 views to pay out. 100 items only require 15 views per item on aveage to reach the payout level.
Believe you me, the level of 15 page views per day is very achievable above the 50 items posted level.
This is something well worthwhile in considering as you look into making cash from your writing.
What you choose is very important and affects how you will be paid.
With the cash upfront payment, you submit items for editorial consideration, this is then either accepted and a cash offer made or rejected for several reasons.
Yahoo! will turn down your work for several reasons, especially if the work is time sensitive such as news or sport based. Editorial consideration can take two or three weeks so you need to consider if you really need the two or three dollars quite so soon.
If you do want to sell your work outright, it appears, in my experience, that items sold for cash then never receive any performance payments. You only get the sun that was offered in the first place.
From my calculations performance payments or CPM (cost per thousand) in the first few months on Yahoo! Contributor Network receive a payment of about 1 cent per 5 or 6 views. so it can take a while for your cash to build if this is your main means of income from writing on the site. They pay out when your performance views reach about 1,500 views. ($1.50) In the early stages you get less cash per view than later as you get closer to 1,500 your payments are supposed to increase.
Taking cash if you can in the early stages seems to make sense if you can, but if you want to use those items to increase your CPM payments then maybe if they are good subjects that you are certain will bring in readers over time you may be better off foregoing the upfront payment and the editorial delays and opting for performance payments only. This means your work if you publish immediately for performance payment is available to readers for anything up to four weeks sooner than it would be if submitted for editorial review.
If it is a popular item you could have 2-300 views in that time if the item is well publicized.
That way as time passes your work will continue to contribute to your income for the longer term.
As you write more items your required number of CPM views actually falls, so one item requires 1,500 views to pay out. 100 items only require 15 views per item on aveage to reach the payout level.
Believe you me, the level of 15 page views per day is very achievable above the 50 items posted level.
This is something well worthwhile in considering as you look into making cash from your writing.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Two Years On: What I have Learned on HubPages
This weekend I celebrated my second anniversary of my first article (Hub) on HubPages.
I took the time to create a hub which describes my feelings and share my ideas of how both I and my writings have changed over that time.
This hub also talks about some of the tips and discoveries I have made over my time on HubPages.
There was actually a wonderful response from many of my readers. Thank you to all who have commented so far. This Hub has actually been my fastest viewed hub up until today, 98 people read it in the first twenty-four hours. That rate is twice as fast as my previous record for my Gettysburg Ghost Photograph.
I believe this single hub has also added 10% more followers to my following in the first twenty-four hours too. My following was 51, this time yesterday, 57 now.
People seem to love HubPages experience stories.
Read the full Hub for yourself here: Two Years On: What I have Learned on HubPages
I took the time to create a hub which describes my feelings and share my ideas of how both I and my writings have changed over that time.
This hub also talks about some of the tips and discoveries I have made over my time on HubPages.
There was actually a wonderful response from many of my readers. Thank you to all who have commented so far. This Hub has actually been my fastest viewed hub up until today, 98 people read it in the first twenty-four hours. That rate is twice as fast as my previous record for my Gettysburg Ghost Photograph.
I believe this single hub has also added 10% more followers to my following in the first twenty-four hours too. My following was 51, this time yesterday, 57 now.
People seem to love HubPages experience stories.
Read the full Hub for yourself here: Two Years On: What I have Learned on HubPages
Monday, August 29, 2011
What does "A" Mean on My Hub List? How To Create a Hub Summary
In recent days, you may have noticed a mysterious letter "A" appear on your account page after a hub title.
What does this "A" mean and How do I fix it?
The "A" tells you that your hub has no summary. Plain and simple.
What does this "A" mean and How do I fix it?
The "A" tells you that your hub has no summary. Plain and simple.
How to Fix it.
- Click EDIT next to the Hub title.
- When the hub appears scan down the right side of the page, above the Tags area you will see an option for summary.
- Click Summary option.
- Write a brief summary of the hub, up to 160 characters including spaces is recommended.
- When completed click on done editing to save the changes.
HubPages say that this summary should appear when your hub appears in the search engine window. Giving the reader a brief enticing summary should bring you more traffic.
You need to allow yourself time to create an enticing summary, create a hook to bring the reader to your hub, don't tell them the whole story or they have no need to come.
Tease but don't Relieve.
I now have 40+ hubs so I think it may take me a couple of weeks to complete all summaries. It is an important job, so don't rush it.
Your summary is an advertisement for your work. Don't sink your ship for poor workmanship on your summary.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Succeed as a Student: Finally Published.
As I mentioned over the weekend I was waiting on the publication of a couple of my articles on YAHOO! Contributor Network (YCN).
One of the articles was finally published today, after three weeks waiting.
The article is "How to Succeed as a Student" some of my easy to follow tips from my experience of gaining my Honors Degree with a 4.0 GPA.
You can use the tips to improve your grade at any time during the courses, which you are taking, but if you are able to start early, I believe that you too will achieve a 4.0 GPA (grade Point Average) and you too can become an Honors graduate.
To read the full article CLICK HERE!
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