Get Paid For Opinions

I’ve always wanted to write.

From my earliest childhood memories, I kept diaries and wrote things down. Poems, stories, letters. Oh, the letters! In junior and senior school, I had several penfriends in three or four countries and writing letters was a habit that continued beyond my most formative years. I still do it, even now, just in the form of emails, rather than snail mail.

I was reminded of my propensity to ‘drop people a line’ or become engaged in long-term correspondence twice recently when two boyfriends from my dim and distant teenage past contacted me through my listing on Friends Reunited. Both referred to my prodigious capacity for letter writing – whilst I cannot remember actually putting pen to paper to either of them and denied doing so vehemently! It was only when The Blast From The Past was turning out his cupboards recently and actually found some of the letters that I had to accept their existence. Whilst he threw out numerous other missives and billets doux, he has decided to keep mine… for posterity… or, more likely, in order to taunt me when I’m rich and famous.

It is only in the last year that I have started to make the connection between the cathartic effect of my writing and my emotional state. When I left College and started work, I still wrote letters but I stopped expelling and committing to paper all my feelings and dreams into a diary. Later, I got married and, with children, I was too busy even to dress smartly, so there was certainly no time for such childish pleasures. Having said that, I did do a yearly round-robin to all the relatives at Christmas, detailing what the kids had been up to, complete with pictures – they seemed to expect some form of communication.

What I did not take into account was how important my writing was to my ability to deal with any inner turmoil. The dissolution of my parents’ marriage went unmarked and this was a huge mistake on my part. Unable to vent the fears, frustrations and general unhappiness, my mind found another way to ‘control’ the effect of the proceedings by engaging in the self-harm of anorexia. As the years passed and one upset turned into another, I would win the occasional battle and it would return to dormancy, always lurking and waiting for the next emotional upheaval.

For almost three decades, I did not put my innermost feelings down on paper, but bottled everything up inside and, when I did finally take the plunge and start to use my keyboard – the modern equivalent of my childhood pens – it was to write erotica. The hormonal imbalance of my impending Menopause meant that I was like woman on heat when it came to sex. But, with a marriage that was disintegrating before my eyes, I had no means of satisfying that need.

When I met Ruf and we lived so far apart, I began sending him stories, imagining our future physical couplings. It was he who encouraged me that I should write a book or at least try to get some of the short stories published. But I had no faith in my own ability to go that far until another friend introduced me to the concept of blogging.

That’s how Joanna Cake came into existence.

The ramblings and emotional outpourings have documented a journey from anorexic insecurity to the confident, independent woman of today.

But, more than that, they have served as a personal counsellor, allowing me to vent my innermost thoughts and anxieties and work them through… with the help of some very dear friends.

When I was introduced to Fortitude, I was intrigued. Nick Oba’s dream is that it will become a daily magazine to be perused over morning coffee – a selection of articles about anything and everything, possibly topical but not necessarily. Pieces which will make you question your previous beliefs or just educate you about something on which you previously knew very little. The most important part of the concept is the ability of the writer to convey their passion for the subject, whilst giving them the opportunity to get paid for their opinions.

It was an ideal project as far as I was concerned. An opportunity to get paid on the internet, as well as being judged by my peers for my ability to coherently reproduce my passion for living and everything that life entails.

The pieces that I submit are judged by all the other contributors, many of whom come from backgrounds which are less open-minded about the more risque and contentious topics that I have previously covered.

This means that, if I want to make some money and kudos by getting voted onto the Front Page, I have to pick my subject matter and titles very carefully, as well as adjusting the style of writing accordingly.

Some of my more purple prose would definitely not work in this sphere, so it becomes a real challenge, where I learn more and more about the tastes and dislikes of my peers each day – judging by my success or lack thereof.

One of the things that has surprised me is how reticent my fellow bloggers have been about signing up to write for Fortitude. The initial outlay for a year is about $25 which can be recouped with just one Front Page piece. Of the lovely people who did sign up through my affiliate link, there are two or three who paid, but then have not put forward any work.

That’s the thing I find hardest to believe. That anyone would buy something and then not use it. Although, after my experiences in other worlds, this attitude ought not to surprise me any longer.

When I worked with a local youth group, there were a large number of people who paid a membership fee and then failed to turn up for the first introductory session – not even getting around to coming in to collect the uniform they had purchased voluntarily on top of the joining fee… £40 shelled out and completely wasted.

Fortitude are now offering to pay writers $1 for every article published – even if it does not make it to the Front Page. They also pay $0.02 for each piece that you review.

The review process allows you to mark each piece out of 10 – with 10 being outstanding and 1 being… well, I haven’t actually used that score yet. Each piece has to achieve 15 marks before it is put into the queue for publishing and the Fortitude algorithm selects the winning pieces and their pay-out value based on the composite review mark, its comparison to the scores of other pieces on that day, how many of those pieces there are and the state of the budget.

For myself I have managed to achieve three Front Pages out of the five articles that I have submitted since Fortitude first published about 10 days ago, which has more than paid for my initial membership outlay.

And to be able to say that I am a published author has done wonders for my own sense of self-esteem.

Having spent three years learning my craft, whilst becoming an independent woman who has to make her own way in the world, the chance to get paid for giving my opinions is a no brainer for me.