35,000 views. 82 cents. When Going Viral Doesn’t Pay.
2 dumb mistakes I don’t make anymore
Sometimes, going viral is a good thing. Especially when all those views drop dollars in the bank like you just hit the jackpot. Because while writing is fun and soothes the savage beast, getting paid to write makes it even more fun.
The reality of writing is that writers often struggle…
We all know that content mills don’t pay. Pretty hard to make a living on sites that pay $10 or $20 for 2500 words. Researched and edited, of course.
But the truth is, it’s not much better here. For every piece that hits $500 or $1000, there’s 20 more that didn’t even make $20. Or $10.
If you did the math, you’d probably find that flipping burgers pays better.
I mean — how long does it take you to write an article? If you take 2 hours to draft, edit, find a photo and publish to earn $20? It’s just math.
Math, and a little bit of random luck.
Often, the pieces that pay are the ones that took off like you breathed some kind of magic while you were typing and you have no idea how or what you did to make the magic happen. You can read all the “how to” tips and they can’t tell you how to replicate the magic, either.
Dumb luck, sometimes.
A lot of writers think more views will pay off…
You see it in the FB groups all the time. People talking about how many views they’re getting while everyone else watches wistfully, imagining that those views must surely translate to dollars.
I’m here to tell you it doesn’t always work that way. But no. Let me show you.
I messed up so you don’t have to. You’re welcome.
My #1 viewed story — 44K views — $93
If you were to google “story of two wolves” or even just “two wolves” you’d find this piece stapled to the top of page one. That was the problem. 96% of the views are external and we only get paid for internal views.
The only reason it made anything at all was likely that it was curated. The 4% internal views were likely driven by curation. Without curation, it likely would have earned even less.
And honestly, the 4 minute read time didn’t help. If it had been a tad longer, it may have paid a little better for the few internal views it got. See?
My #2 viewed story — 41K views — $470
This one got 4K less views, but earned 4x the amount. Why did it earn so much more despite having less views? Mostly because 20% of the views were internal on this one. Read time wasn’t much more — 5 minutes on this one.
My #3 viewed story: 35K views — $0.82
Can’t even blame Google on this one. Only 1% of the views were internal. Of the 99% of external views, most of them were email, Facebook and Twitter.
To make it even worse, it was a 3 minute read. When 1% of the views come from members and it’s a 3 minute read — well, that’s just not going to pay.
2 dumb mistakes I don’t make anymore…
When we’re new or new-ish and learning the ropes, we all do the same thing. We read advice from the people a few steps ahead on the path. Because surely they know, right?
So I learned to SEO my posts. Worked my butt off promoting my posts on Facebook and Twitter. Not anymore.
That’s 2 dumb mistakes I don’t make anymore.
And I’m not telling you not to promote your posts. Promote if you want to. But I am telling you that links in Google and on Twitter are friend links. Which means non-members can read free and you don’t earn a shiny penny.
All that time I used to spend promoting my articles and SEOing my stories? No more. Now I spend that time commenting on other writer’s posts. It brings me more internal exposure. Plus, I get to meet more writers. Win, win.
The stories that paid best are nowhere near the top for views. But they have mostly internal views, and internal views are the only ones that pay.
There’s not a right or wrong way to grow as a writer, only your way. But it helps if you understand how the pieces fit together.