New Article on Athene and Pay-Per-Click Sites

I've put up a new article on  the Goddess Athene on Hubpages. Hubpages actually seems to be doing fairly well at the moment, with pageviews looking healthy and the Hubpages Earning Program delivering small but visible results rather quickly (speaking only of my own recent revisiting of the site).

Suite 101 seems to be looking a mite happier over the past couple of days or so, but it is  too early to tell if this prefigures a significant reversal of its current languishment.

On the fora of such sites, one is frequently advised that the key to these pay-per-click gigs is persistence, that eventually you will find your niche or somehow get lucky. No doubt there is an element of truth in that and the saying of it always makes me feel that I should pull my socks up and try harder. On the other hand, if someone were to say to you 'come into work every day and one day, maybe, you'll get paid,'  that would seem an unreasonable proposition.

Actually, thinking about it,  that is how rather a lot of the more interesting creative occupations work these days; you are expected to have put in a substantial amount of volunteering before they will consider you for a paid post. People must be bribed or cajoled to do routine and unpleasant work, but if the job inspires passion like writing, people will queue to do it for free.

Hello Again

Goodness, I've been quiet on here for a while, haven't I? Sorry about that.

Protracted Death of the Online Content Sites
Meanwhile, it seems as though the world of online content writing has gone belly-up. Six months ago or so, there was paid work to be had from Ehow, Brighthub and WikioExperts, that short-lived and mysterious site which offered small sums for random articles. All these sites seem to have undergone varying degrees of radical transformation boiling down to the fact that they no longer pay for articles or, if they do, not for articles from me.

The revenue sites haven't died, as such, but Suite 101, for example, is not a happy bunny.

Return to Blogging

The answer, in as far as there is one, seems to be a return to blogging. Hi :) Giving content sites rights over your work and a large percentage of any income you make from it seems somewhat pointless when you begin to suspect you have as much chance of attracting as many views as they do to your own little blog - not because you attract so many as that they... also blogging offers the pleasures of experiment and doing things the way you want rather than conforming to a set formula, and that suits me very well.

News from the Gardens of Lucullus
Meanwhile, my little classics site, The Gardens of Lucullus has lately acquired a growing online library of links to Latin texts and accompanying English translations, with an emphasis on sourcing fresh contemporary translations rather than the stilted and censored old stuff that is such an excellent advertisement for reading in the original. Have a look, here (if you're interested in Latin Literature, that is).

Right, that's about all I have to say for myself here for now. I'll try not to leave it so long, next time.