A "Writing Retreat"

In about two weeks, we are heading to Denmark.

That's where I am originally from, and my family still has a summerhouse there, which now functions as a "family timeshare," of sorts.

People have been going to this house for generations (it was built in the 1930s) to "get away" from daily life, and often to express their creativity.

When my grandparents were still alive, a lot of painters would come and spend weeks-- or entire summers-- in this place, working on their art. My grandfather was a big supporter of up and coming artists-- as an art collector, many of the pieces hanging on the walls of the (long gone) "ancestral home" were painted by artists he personally knew.

The house would also be a summer gathering place for writers and philosophers, who used the quiet and the "slowing of time" to get in touch with their inner muses.

Even in 2015, this remains possible... although now surrounded by developments, there are still 24 untouched acres of land immediately surrounding the house. And when you arrive, it is as if time slows down... or "ceases to exist," altogether.

I have often dreamed of using some time at this place to simply sit and write. We have gone in the past, but it seems like there has always been "something" to get in the way... from family gatherings to needing to act as "tour guide." This time, we are going with the intention of "just sitting," because we have not had a (real) vacation in four years.

That's my intention.

Of course, "even the best laid plans...." and yadda, yadda.

Stay tuned....

Another One Bites the Dust... well, TWO actually

The online writing business continues to be "not much of anything."

One-time (and short-lived) Bubblews "alternative" CGP Gallery has shut down. Or maybe been shut down by WordPress for deceptive practices. Or maybe they didn't pay their bills... not surprising, either way. The site reeked of "making promises we can't keep," so the demise was almost inevitable.

Meanwhile, one of the "serious" writing sites-- Zujava-- has announced that it will be closing down in July. I always liked Zujava-- it had a nice clean interface, and would only accept "real" writers who put up quality content.

Unfortunately, the wheels sort of fell off when Zujava ran into trouble with Amazon Associates and lost their affiliate account, meaning that contributors were left without one of the primary ways they could earn income from the site. Things never quite recovered, and the flow of new content more or less stopped.

Whereas I never really got very deep into publishing on the site, I was able to "triangulate" from my four published articles that the entire site was barely taking in $200-300 a month in ad revenues... to be divided up among 4000-odd articles. Basically, a handful of change. There's a limit to just how much "serious" writers are willing to create content and get nothing in return.

At this point, I am sort of "soured" on the whole writing online for money experience. I will continue to add some content on HubPages, and I will probably transfer my Zujava content there... but that's about the extent of it. I am somewhat worried that HubPages is now pretty much "the only came in town," and especially as it relates to better quality content. That's a bit scary.

I definitely need to make sure I have backup copies of all my articles there.

Monthly Report: April 2015

Time for another monthly recap from the wonderful world of The Lazy Online Writer.

April was a rather dull month, although I actually started getting more active with writing again-- however, that activity will not be reflected in current income.

Getting organized while we were in Joshua Tree will turn into a benefit, but I don't expect that to manifest financially till July or August.

Lost more ground in April, mostly due to my Amazon Associates sales dropping off the map.

Here's the final breakdown:

$3.53 from AdSense (2,132 page views)-- remains well below historical average
$3.30 from Amazon Associates (7 orders/89 clicks)-- also well below historical average
$5.83 from my "original" HubPages account (20 articles)-- remains below average
$5.26 from my "Squid" HubPages account (8 articles)-- still establishing a trend there

That adds up to a grand total of $17.92 for April-- lowest in several years.

Little disturbed by the trend here-- the AdSense page views was the lowest since April 2012.

Not counting any other venues as none are producing measurable or reliable income I think I will ever see. Bubblews is pretty much dead in the water, CGP Gallery is a joke, Seekyt is pretty much a spam farm and Zujava seems to (sadly!) be dying a slow death. I am staying away from "promising" new sites, because they are usually full of shit.

The only "possible" on the horizon is "Tsu," which is a Facebook-ish (rather than writing) venue that claims to pay contributors. I think it's true-- based on what I have read-- but I also think you have to be a semi-celebrity with thousands of followers to have any chance to reach the $100 payout threshold. I've dabbled there a bit... which has earned me the princely sum of 15 cents.