But damn few changes in reality
Nothing ever changes much in terms of the human experience. For instance, the clickbait pic used to illustrate this piece was stolen from someone else’s article and I can justify its use here by suggesting that she looks like she’s in some kind of performance (art, you know?), or that she’s Royalty (note her tiara), or maybe both.
Here online we are, the best of us, IMO, artists, seeking an audience for our art and striving to get better, be better at our work, and achieve more.
We’d like more viewers, more readers, more fuckin’ earnings. And this, even though online sites keep moving the goalposts all over the place, not just on the field of play but anywhere/everywhere. You get 100 followers, yer in.
But hold on, wait a sec. You show 110, but 72 of them are suddenly bots so you’re gonna have to keep pluggin’ along before you eventually get added to the Big Payday Club. And then you’ll begin receiving $.82 a month based on your total number of readings by paying members (only) who may or may not clap for you or follow you or . . .what-the-fuck-ever. And BTW, this entire formula may change overnight — good luck keeping up.
Royalty? Well, I’ve posted close to 2K pieces online, and responded to nearly 4K. Before I ever came here, I earned close to a million bucks with my writing between the year 2000 and today. I am, obviously, a “professional writer.” I am your wannabe typers’ idea of Royalty, and yet I’ve never made more than about $100 for any 30-day period on Medium since I’ve been here.
On the plus side, I’ve made some great virtual friends who may or may not look like the woman in my clickbait pic above. I’ve also gathered close to 3K followers and had more than 500 of you see the best thing I’ve ever written, my epic poem Sheehan. I love writing.
I spend day after day, hour after hour here online posting new things, old things, re-written old-into-new things, and writing messages back and forth with strangers who’ve become friends.
The bottom line here is this
The bottom line here is this: You need to decide just what level of accomplishment you want to reach online and specifically and with your writing generally.
The higher latitudes of achievement have very rare air and no one gets to stay up there very long, much less forever. So, in the end, it’s your attitude towards who you are and what you’re doing that matters the most.
And don’t believe for a second that using clickbait images and clever titles is a bad idea. Anything that brings a reader to your world is good, and the work itself will inform them regarding whether or not to stick around.
As for other big dreams and grand schemes here via online sites? Well, good luck with that; read above.
