This Augurs Well (inshallah)
I was accepted for the Partner Program on May 15, 2022. My earnings as of this morning are $0.13 from three posts (out of four). If that amount rises before the end of the month of May at midnight, I will be delighted. If not, I am still a happy camper.
Having never successfully marketed my novels, the novels written with my husband, my book on democracy, or the productions of my plays, and barely having enough followers to qualify for the Partner Program, thirteen cents is a decent start. (Linking URLs in that sentence, though intended to provide info to the interested, still counts as one of the clumsy ways I market my books to no avail.)
Yes, 13 hundredths of a dollar. As they say, getting something is better than nothing. (Although, frankly, whoever says that has probably never been remunerated in kind rather than coin. We’re thinking parting gifts on game shows of yore.)
For me, those diez y tres centavos americanos are like the first dollar bill earned, the one that small businesses frame and mount on the wall behind the cash register. I took the photo of thirteen pennies for the same purpose, to memorialize my achievement.
How I earned small change was by doing something one rarely reads in how to make $100 a week on Medium or how to make every post count toward earnings. I wrote whatever came to me in the moment, like this post.
No strategy. No listicle items checked to determine if the post met the criteria for fame and fortune. No listicle. No avoidance of the five mistakes that new writers make. In fact, this is an example of one of the mistakes I read about.
As noted above, these earnings come from three of four metered posts. The one post that didn’t earn anything was on gun violence and gun control. I don’t know why readers didn’t linger over that one. I don’t care. I wrote it because I wanted to write that piece in the moment.
The post that earned the most (rhymes are so easy to come by, aren’t they?) was one on 10 things about myself mimicking a post by a writer whose class I took on improving one’s online presence. By this measure, she is still teaching me.
All that said, did anyone think about the subtitle to this post? So you don’t have to scroll back, it is This Augurs Well (inshallah).
This is an example of how my mind works when I write.
- Augur means to foretell or portend. Coupled with well and inshallah, the meaning is that I hope this is a good sign for the future.
- Augur comes from the same Latin root as augment, which means to increase, like what this side hustle on Medium does for one’s income.
- Augur is a homonym of auger, which is a tool used to drill holes. Auger alludes to well, in this case a hole in the ground rather than good.
And there, I wrote a list. My work is done. (inshallah)
