200,000 Views and Making My First $10

With all the concentration on getting my blog, which will from now on always be referred to as my “website” set up with ads from Google and having made the switch from wordpress.com to Bluehost as my server, it came as a surprise when I finally hit the 200,000 views and on the same day, I realized that I had made my first $10.

Excitement levels soared, but not too far as, let’s face it, 10 bucks doesn’t go as far as it used to and I’ve been hovering around the 200,000 mark for a while now. Still, it proves that in this world, whether blogging or not, you have to prime the pump a little to get more exposure.

I’ll explain.

I made the decision this year to go outside my comfort zone and leave WP dot com and head over to dot org. The main reason was that I could put Google Adsense on my site. While I may never make enough to buy more than the occasional latte, this move puts me more firmly where I want to be. Self employed working mainly on my site and heading (very slowly) to Bing and Google News land.

After two years, or so, of folks telling me that I have “mad writing skills” (sorry that was not actually what they said, but merely my translation) and that I was being foolish by not concentrating on my own site. Since I’ve been blogging since 2011 and worked as a journalist for nearly two years, and an editor for the same amount of time, it seemed to be good suggestion.

Part of the reason for this move is to get rid of the nasty taste in my mouth from working for a con artist and the remainder of the rationale has to do with not having to write for any content mills. As I mentioned in my Inquistr article, there are plenty out there and while they seem to pay better than most, these…clowns, idiots people cannot seem to read a simple email.

*Sidenote* After telling me that my “sample” was not good enough and to write another one, I responded saying that with no specific feedback, I would not be writing any further “articles.” I got two more emails asking me to rewrite my sample article but neither one offered any feedback specific to the first one, as requested. My final email, which they obviously finally read, said bluntly “Stop wasting my time” and “read my previous emails.” *Long sidenote over*

Admittedly, I was not too upset about not being asked to write real, versus, sample articles as their requirements are 100 stories per month. Can we say Content Mill? With no proper Internet (I’m sure that Burger King pray for a day when I will have my own service to use and will no longer darken their towels.) I am in no position to work for any other publications that have that sort of workload requirement.

I have noticed that my recaps and reviews for TV shows and films are growing in terms of view counts and that a lot of show’s writers and creators are interacting in a positive fashion. On top of all this great news, I have also made money. My cup runneth over or at least it will when I have verified my address to get paid.

200,000 views on my blog (website) is a milestone. Back when I first started all this blogging stuff, it was a hobby meant to see if I could still write. It had been years since my journalism course and while writing classes were taken at University and as part of the courses offered via the USAF I did not submit much in the way of news articles and as for creative writing…

Time will tell whether this milestone will mean anything or not in terms of site growth. Regardless of just where this all ends up, I will continue my Bing and Google journey and keep doing the reviews and recaps while fitting in the odd film review. The only thing that will slow me down will be lack of funds or food, which really amounts to the same thing.

Life is interesting, although not always in a good way, and if I can just survive riding a schwinn bike 12 miles plus seven days a week at (almost) 57 in high temperatures or storms and not be hit by some octogenarian driver I may just start to make some real money…like $20.

I would carry on about this exciting event but there is research to be done about whether or not a “donate” button can be added to a page with Adsense ads on it…

Author: Michael Knox-Smith

Former Actor, Former Writer, Former Journalist, USAF Veteran, Former Member Nevada Film Critics Society (As Michael Smith) View all posts by Michael Knox-Smith