Google decided to make some changes to their algorithm. I'm not crazy about that word because I truly don't understand anything about it. All I know is that it is the thing that drives what comes up on the first page of Google when you search for something.
These changes are devastating for people who have been making a living writing for sites like Yahoo! Contributor Network (formerly Associated Content) and Helium. Why is it devastating? Because the changes have made earnings for those writers drop to half of what they were making before Google made the changes. Granted, writers make most of their monthly income through upfront payments on these sites, but the ad revenue makes a huge difference in how much time writers have to spend working per month. Thus, the upset among the writing communty on the internet.
How will work at home writers make a living now? We will do it the same way we have been doing it. Google has put more limits on writers as a whole. Google isn't the only search engine though. The problem is, other search engines may well follow suit.
Some writers believe that Google made this move in order to "punish" the Yahoo! Contributor website. Yahoo recently bought the website formerly known as Associated Content. Yahoo is a direct competitor of Google and is about the only one that is a serious competitor. It wouldn't be the first high powered website to use such tactics. FaceBook is well known for implementing things harmful to other sites as well. Worse yet, they do things to purposely shut those other websites down.
What does this mean for the average user? It means that these two sites have gotten far too big for their britches. They want it all. They want all the money and all the internet users. Nothing less will suffice. Unfortunately, this harms the average internet user. It is dangerous for a business, especially an internet business, to have a monopoly. Though they may not be monopolies yet, they will do everything they can to reach that status. Internet users won't have a choice whether to use them or not. They will add, delete or do just about anything they please because people who want to use the internet virtually must use these sites.
I think it is time for a change. I wasn't given much of a choice when it came to switching from MySpace to FaceBook. I didn't want to leave MySpace because I, quite frankly prefered it over FaceBook. I am guessing that there are many others who felt the same way. I joined FaceBook because I didn't have anyone left to talk to on MySpace. Why did they leave? Because someone else they talked to left. It was a domino effect that literally brought MySpace to a screeching halt.
Due to recent changes in writing sites that I write for, I was forced to spread my wings. This is the entire point of this blog entry. I no longer write for one or two sites. I write for many sites. Some sites pay more upfront but I don't get the ad revenue. That is okay because I still write to the sites that I wrote to before in order to continue building up ad revenue. I found that I can make as much from one article as I can for 30 articles if I am willing to sell them outright. That is a lesson I put off learning for a long time. Does it always work out? No, it does not always work out that way, but it does enough times that I don't have to sit at my computer day in and day out to earn enough money to live off of.
The lesson in this for other writers and for those who wish to begin a work at home career as a writer is that you should never keep your eggs in one basket. One small change in a website can kill your earnings quickly. It leaves you less options if the site goes down as well. Now imagine every site that you write for changing back to back that will hurt your earning potential. I am here to tell you, after two years of working from home, that if one site makes changes, the other one isn't going to be far behind. It is the fickle way of the internet world in general. Nothing stays the same and you should get used to the fast paced changes or get out of the business.
What does this mean for me as a work from home woman? It means that I will work hard to make sure that I still make enough money, because the money is still there. I just have to find it in a different way now. I am not giving up this dream because it is a dream come true for me. If anything, these changes have made me more determined than ever to see it through. I love the ability to be able to work whenever I feel like it. I have even changed it up a bit and answer questions over at ChaCha. It isn't massive money, but it adds up very quickly and the bank they use for deposits is a little better than PayPal on some issues. The ChaCha bank account allows the money to be immediately deposited into my bank account. When I say immediate, I mean immediate. As soon as I hit the pay me now button, the money is in the bank account. It is also more like a regular checking account. They even have a routing number, unlike PayPal. That means I can get direct deposits made. PayPal is only better in one respect. PayPal doesn't charge anything for the deposits from websites. The bank ChaCha uses charges $2 everytime I hit the pay me now button. I can live with that when I can get the money right away though.
Yes, Google changes and site changes tried to put a hurting on my earnings. It didn't work though because it made me open up new options that I would have never known existed had it not been for these changes. So, thank you Google. You have made my earnings rise in different ways that have nothing to do with you. I also find that the Yahoo search engine is just as good, if not better than Google. So put that in your pipe and smoke it Google!
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