When I started free-lance writing, I thought it would be good for two reasons.
I could unleash the inner me crying out to be heard, and
I could make a couple of extra bucks at the same time.
That all sounded great in the beginning.
Then there were too many inner voices crying out, and the publisher did, as publishers often do, change the pay plan. Or algorithm characteristics. Or any number of cost-cutting variables.
Writers incrementally had to write more stories. Make out smaller deposit slips. Come up with a side-hustle for their side-hustles.