There are not that many ways left for an unemployed writer to make an honest buck. The hay day of the Saturday Evening Post is long past. Most magazines and newspapers rely on staff writers or independent contractors. Some publications will pay a whooping three dollars an article. Many of the pay to work sites will only pay a one time fee while they sell the article multiple times. So what is an out of work writer to do?
How to make a few bucks, pay a few bills and still work from home?
I gave adsense a try. I was thrilled when I made an entire dollar. It was a small start but with steady growth my ad earnings might have paid the netflix bill.
I was over the moon when I earned a staggering twenty two dollars and ninety two cents. But the romance between me and Adsense was not to last.
I opened my email one morning only to receive the startling news that my adsense account had been disabled. "Due to invalid clicks" they said. And to protect their advertisers they had disabled my account and refunded the fees.
I wasn't quit sure what I or my readers (all six of them) were being accused of. But I meant to find out. I clicked on the link labeled appeal. It took me to a form that said clearly at the top do not use this form if you are filing an appeal concerning your adsense account. Click here for more information. This second link took me right back where I started.
After going around in circles a dozen times I gave up. My attempts to find an email or a phone number where I could contact a real person also failed. Oh well I thought, it was fun while it lasted, can't win them all etc. I went to see what my lonely little blog looked like without ads.
And received an interesting surprise. The ads were still up. Ads if you please, that they saw no need to pay me for. I am ashamed to say that at this point I (finally) resorted to profanity. I will not repeat my words here but needless to say they were colorful.
Having relieved my feelings I took the ads down myself. And it gave me no small satisfaction. I will be honest and admit that I wallowed in the self pity and disappointment for awhile. You may have noticed it's been more than a week since my last post.
The next day my pin card arrived in the mail. It listed an email address. So I sent Google Adsense an email telling them our association was at an end, and why. I was painfully polite even thought it nearly killed me. I kept hearing my Great Grandmother in my head. "A lady is a lady in EVERY situation, regardless of others' behavior."
I have not gotten an answer and I doubt I will. To be honest I doubt anyone even read the email.
But as they say "Put your big girl panties on and deal with it" and "Don't let the bastards get you down" and all that jazz. So I' m back and things mostly back to normal.
Advertising at Unemployed Adjectives has under gone a few changes.
In Future all advertising will be through ME and approved by Me.
All rates will be set by ME and clearly stated.
All payment will be rendered in advance.
And in the mean time I'm going to look up how you sell Viagra online.
I think we should try AdBrite....I
ReplyDeletejust can't figure how to make it work!!!