One-Year Review of Writing on NewsBreak

I started writing on NewsBreak around the end of Dec. 2022 with my first published article on Dec. 25 (an unintentional date, but isn’t it fitting). It was about the renewal of the Christmas Valley Golf Course and it has accumulated 129 views up until now.

The renewal of the Christmas Valley Golf Course in Eastern Oregon | NewsBreak…

Although I started writing in Dec. 2022, I didn’t start making money until February because I had to apply and be approved. This entailed having 100 registered followers, writing ten articles, applying, and waiting around for a month. Here are the details of my journey if interested.

Approval Time for NewsBreak Monetization

Being a seasonal golf course greenskeeper, I have 4 months in the off-season to write more on NB, writing around 10–20 articles a month. During the other 8 months, writing is just a part-time effort — I usually write 1–2 articles a month.

The theme for all of my articles at NewsBreak is #Oregon.

Here are my stats for the last 13 months:

112 articles (average 8.62/month)
14 million impressions
704k views
8,667 likes
2,720 followers
9744 comments
8108 shares

The total amount made up until now:

$3,597.98
$32.12/article
$300/month
$5.11/RPM

The most popular article so far is:

Should 1998 Thurston High School shooter Kip Kinkel be let out of prison? His sister thinks so |…

It has 109,803 views and made me around $675.

The exact dollar amount made is hard to calculate the way NB does stats, as it goes month by month and doesn’t give a total for all time with each article.

The runner-up has 109,668 views (essentially a tie for first):

Woman shoots a gun at the Portland International Airport to avoid shooting her family

The article with the most comments (1,618) is ( BTW this article was basically ignored at Medium — I syndicate select NB articles):

Opinion: Most communities in Oregon and the US are Republican, yet Democrats are in charge

The article with the most likes (891) is ( stirred up a hornet's nest, so they made me change the title, it was better before),

Trump agrees with the conclusion of Oregon Secretary of State to keep him on primary ballot |…

The article with the most shares (1,190) is:

Accepting pro-LGBT views is now a requirement for adopting children in Oregon

Those are the stats and details of my writing career at NewsBreak. Hopefully, the popular news app will continue valuing its local contributors in the future, so I can keep making money writing about Oregon!

NB has been my best earner as a writer, blogger, and author. I also write for HubPages, Medium, Vocal, Blogger, WordPress, and my books. Out of all of these writing income sources, NB has far surpassed them.

For instance, my most popular book has made around $600 in its lifetime (nine years old). My most popular article on NB made more than that. Just one article that took about two hours. Wow.

You never know when and where you will get favor. I started out writing for All Voices in 2013 before I started blogging at Blogger and WordPress. All Voices turned into a closed system with select writers…It has been a long online writing road…Squidoo…Daily Two Cents…Bubblews…Teckler…InfoBarrel…Persona Paper…

Unfortunately, if you’ve been writing online long enough, you realize how transient and capricious things can be when it comes to long-term stability with platforms. Things change and sometimes the platform doesn’t make it — HubPages is in the throes of this now, will it change and survive? Hopefully, it’s had a long run of nearly two decades, starting in August 2006.

NewsBreak could change as well. AI seems to be the culprit of future gloom for most creative platforms. Until the bots take over I’ll keep writing online, remembering to stop and smell the roses along the way.

Here is the help page explaining what is required to apply for monetization if you are interested in writing for NewsBreak:

Monetization options and application

Originally published at Medium

HubPages vs. Vocal

Gaining Context I opened my account at Vocal around two years ago when I published my first article. It was a syndicated article from my golf blog, which surprisingly has done better than all other articles since. Around three months ago, I decided to give Vocal a real chance with a renewed effort and by becoming a Vocal Plus member. They enticed me with half off a year’s membership ($50 for a year, usually it is $99 annually or $10/month). Since this renewed effort, I have published nine articles; six were written originally at Vocal (four were for Vocal Challenges), and the other 3 were syndicated from elsewhere. The plan for Vocal was to publish my creative writing there originally, which meant I had to switch from HubPages where these were published originally before. The distracting ads and lackluster RPM helped make this decision, although I’ve been writing on HP for over a decade. After three months of “working” Vocal, I’ve realized it isn’t worth paying the $10/month. I’ll expl

Views are Like Customers to Writers

Writing online entails considering how many impressions, views, visitors/reads, comments, shares, and reactions each article gets. These digital assets symbolize the money made from each article. How many views did that article get — that poem, story, blog post, picture, art piece? The number will determine how much money the article made. While most writers appreciate even one single read, this doesn’t pay much. On the high end, this might bring .02 cents. Usually, around half a cent, or $5 RMP. Different Writing Platforms and Efforts At Medium views don’t turn into a specific amount of money, rather they are merely an indication of possible money — reads are more important at Medium, as they correlate closely with any money made. Each read at Medium this month made me around that .02 cent mark! The reads at Medium might not be from members, so may not make us money. Still, on average, both views and reads equal a certain estimated amount for each Medium writer. At Vocal, they make it

Oregon mother jailed for treating daughter’s cancer with homeopathic remedies

In a highly controversial case, an Oregon mother was sentenced to 90 days of jail and 3 years of probation for essentially making health decisions for her now 17-year-old daughter that the state didn’t like. The details are found in an Oregon Live article by Noelle Crombie on Feb. 27. The article explains that the mother, Christina Gale Dixon, 39, decided to treat her daughter with CBD and other homeopathic remedies instead of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery (conventional treatments for cancer). This wasn’t always the case, as her daughter, Kylee Dixon, was first diagnosed with liver cancer in 2018 and underwent three rounds of chemotherapy. The article explains that the Oregon Department of Human Services got involved in late 2018 when the mother wasn’t allowing her daughter to be treated according to the allelopathic physicians. The state then took custody of her daughter, yet allowed her to live with her mother until Christina fled with her daughter to Las Vegas to avoid a sch

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