The Scam of "How to Earn Money as a Writer" articles

I know that this ‘topic’ will ruffle a lot of feathers.

That’s ok.

Sometimes people need to hear [a] truth.

“The truth will always set you free,” as they say.

Keep in mind that this is just an opinion, based on a personal observation.

Personal opinions are unique to every individual human being, because every human being is unique.

We are made this way.

With the tumultuous state of being a ‘creative’, making their living off the ebbs and tides of the internet, I have started to realize some brutal realities lurking in the crevices of internet “self-help” arenas.

In my view, many of these “self-help” tutorials on earning a living (as a writer) are basically clickbait, in the gentlest terms.

Desperate, starving writers, looking to make a few bucks off their blood, sweat, and tears (aka their ‘art’), sell fantasy to other desperate artists, who are also struggling to make ends meet through their writing.

It’s a bit of an endless cycle, almost like a Fibonacci sequence:

Poor, starving writers, desperate to earn any income, copy and paste supposed “insider information” about money-making websites to lure other desperate, highly impressionable writers, scratching for any measly compensation for the writing.

It’s like pigeons in an open square being fed breadcrumbs. The pigeons take the few breadcrumbs they are given, and hawk (no pun intended) some of those paltry breadcrumbs to other starving pigeons, with the promise of a “bounty” of more breadcrumbs to come. The pigeons (given the breadcrumbs) need to follow the ‘advice’ of the principal pigeons and provide them with some breadcrumbs back, to receive “the secrets” to attract more breadcrumbs for themselves.

That example may be a bit confusing. Try rereading it if you don’t understand it.

Anyway, writers (of these articles) can then earn some form of compensation by people simply reading the article, purchasing the product, course, or e-book the author is promoting, visiting the author’s blog or website, or even making a small donation to the writer’s Patreon, Kickstarter, or some other charitable donation website or campaign.

Often, writers of these articles will say, “Hey, here are 10 websites that will pay you x amount of dollars per article.”

Except the writer fails to mention the ACTUAL websites. In fact, they will offer vague descriptions of the kind of websites that will pay you for your written work.

To be clear, there is nothing inherently wrong with being compensated for one’s work. That is the nature of business: One performs a service or produces a product, and they are duly compensated for it.

The problem here is that AI is obliterating human-written content. What a human will spend hours completing and expect to be paid for, an artificial intelligence program can perform in milliseconds, for free. Simple as that.

No matter how unfair this reality is, it is the reality of this rapidly advancing technological world, and it will not subside; it will only increase drastically over time.

In other words, the days of humans ‘writing’ content (especially for the internet) are most likely in the irreversible stages of immediate decline and ultimately, a speedy death.

With less perceived ‘crumbs’ available, frenzied writers are looking for ANY possible way to be compensated for their work (and rightfully so!).

Guess what?

There are more writers every day who are in the same boat.

How does one capitalize on this sorrowful phenomenon?

By selling a ‘promise’ of riches to other insecure writers, struggling to earn a living, doing what they love.

The websites promoted can easily help an up-and-coming writer discover a platform that not only publishes their work but also pays them decently for it (crazy thought, huh?).

The problem is that a hefty portion of the websites listed in these “How to make money off your writing” articles are already absolutely inundated with written submissions.

Thus, the websites often either close their submissions portal or, more often, place heavy restrictions on the content that can be submitted.

This usually involves non-AI-generated content and strict adherence to all rules for submitting one’s written work. No exceptions!

This creates ANOTHER problem: Since these websites have far, far too many written submissions to consider for publication, the time frame that a writer must wait even to be notified if their article was accepted for publication is weeks, or even months! If they are even notified at all!

In the meantime, the writer [usually] is forbidden to publish that piece ANYWHERE else on the internet.

They can’t post it on their personal website, blog, mailing list, or even on another website to start earning a little income.

No, a writer must wait weeks and months to be eligible to be paid for their work by the website. In the meantime, they spent time and effort on a piece of writing that could be sitting in limbo for months while the author waits to see whether they will be paid.

Pretty crappy situation!

So, why does this ‘happening’ keep happening?

I briefly mentioned this earlier in this op-ed, but it seems like writers copy and paste other writers’ work that was published on this [money-paying website] months ago.

Perhaps when the information was FIRST published, these websites were enthusiastically accepting submissions and or maintaining more agreeable submission standards.

Word travels fast, and suddenly, when everyone is scrambling for the ‘breadcrumbs,’ the person who has the bread begins to clamp down on the distribution of the “crumbs.”

The bottom line is that writers, like any artist or anyone in business, for that matter, absolutely need attention for the product (or service) that they produce, so that they can be compensated for it.

What is the best way for a starving artist to compete with other famished artists in an industry caught in an accelerated whirlpool of demise?

To promise a way “out of the whirlpool.” In other words, to offer a solution to the problem of finding work for your job.

More precisely, for finding a path to payment for one’s work.

I don’t have an answer to how a writer can earn a living through writing.

I am too much of a novice in this field to provide an effective solution to this seemingly immortal anomaly of reality.

What I can say is this:

Life is infinite.

There is always a possibility, always a path forward.

However, technology [Artificial Intelligence] is overtaking the human aspect of writing.

I don’t know if or how humans can overcome this regretful circumstance.

No matter how many people there are vying for work in a field, no matter how much computer technology has advanced, chock-full of intricate algorithms selectively picking and deciding what humans should (and can) consume, I firmly believe that there is still a piece of the pie available to anyone and EVERYONE.

It may be increasingly challenging to get that piece of the pie as time accelerates toward a more technocratic future.