My decision to stop working for them was mostly financial. I think reviews were around $20.00 USD per piece, or it might have even been $10.00. If I did slideshows, there was an increase of maybe $30.00 USD. The simple fact was that in order to create something the editor approved and was of good quality, it always meant devoting more time than what would have made any kind of economic sense.
Also, there was a new head editor who took over a few months before I decided to end things, who increased the level of expectations and workload for each piece but didn't make any effort to allow the pay to follow along. Pay that was already not going to get me out of poverty if I spent entire days working for them rather than much more lucrative work. It was always destined to be a very small side gig, but my impression was she was expecting far more dedication than that.
So, I sent an email declaring I was done effective immediately, which included one or two shows I was still reviewing.
I had a few other ongoing clients at the time, and was picking one off work at a pretty frequent rate at the time. I also had a part-time gig at an office to supplement my dreams of growing as a professional writer. I didn't even second-guess letting the gig go.
Now, I sometimes wonder. It wouldn't have lasted forever because the site, to my knowledge, has gone under for several years now. And if it does still exist, it is under new ownership, and I don't think it really makes the kind of money it was making over a decade ago.
My career kind of unravelled within a year after quitting. The secure work I had all evaporated as the other clients ended up shutting down their sites or going out of business or deciding they no longer needed a copywriter. I started suffering from depression and what I now know as autistic burnout for the next several years.
The idea I had was writing pop culture for peanuts was stupid when I could write on my own site and control my audience, and eventually monetize things. Yet, over a decade later, I never really achieved that. One podcast has been posted this year. My newsletter has had one issue in 2026, and it had nothing to do with pop culture. My site has had posts, but mostly just filler stuff and definitely no reviews or really insightful pop culture writings.
Sometimes I ponder if I did keep those lower-paying gigs, that I'd at least have built up an audience or reputation better than I have been able to do with my own site. Or at least the very insignificant money was still more than the imaginary maybe one day I can monetize money that mocks me.
Of course, none of it really matters now. The site I wrote for is gone. My creative projects are in the state they are in. My only consistent client isn't really all that consistent since the work they offer is not even weekly, and the pay is only slightly better than what I had in 2014 without the bigger clients to justify it as a side gig. Now, it is how I keep the lights on until I can snag much more profitable clients. Sometimes I wonder if that is all fantasy in the current state of things.
I can't live in the past; I can't beat myself up over the present. I can only decide where I want to go next. And prove that the 2014 dreamer was right that I had the skills and creativity to find an audience that loves my work and maybe even is willing to pay for it.
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