Once again, I tracked my earnings on each of my online contents sites: Associated Content, Helium, Suite101, Examiner and Ehow. I can't show you the actual numbers for the earnings, but I can tell you how things shook out.
As a reminder, this data is gathered rather unscientifically, and I know that.
Suite 101
Suite101, once again, came out on top for earnings per article. The revenue share there is about four times the performance pay on AC, despite the fact that I have just over a quarter of the articles there than I do on Associated Content (and just under half of what I have on Helium). Suite and AC are the only two I have page view data for, and Suite garnered me 2,540 MORE views than AC did. In fact, despite adding six articles to Associated Content, my views there went down in July. Suite page views went up about 500 with the addition of only four articles.
For total earnings, Suite is not yet up to where Helium and AC are, because they give up front payments. I suspect that once I get my article inventory up a bit at Suite, that will no longer be the case. There is a bonus once you reach 50 articles and I'm only 12 away from that, so that is my goal for August.
Helium
Helium came in second this month for earnings per article, after coming in a dismal fourth last month. This is due to a variety of reasons: adding more articles than I did anywhere else (by recycling stuff from AC, so it didn't take much time), the sale of an article to one of Helium's partners, and a dramatic drop in earnings at other sites. When I get 19 more articles up there, I will get another writing star and therefore earn a little more in up fronts per article. That is my goal for August, but given that I just started a day job and have other things to do, that's a pretty aggressive goal. I'll be happy if it happens in September.
Helium came in second for total earnings, behind AC where the up-fronts are higher and where I earned more in performance pay. However, my AC performance pay was less than a dollar more than Helium with 50 more articles--not counting the $5 sale at Helium. The gap in performance pay in June was about $3, so that is closing. I suspect that Helium will pass AC next month in that department.
Associated Content
Associated Content came in third for earnings per article, with a significant drop from last month thanks to the addition of several articles and a plummet in page views. The forums there and elsewhere are teeming with people complaining about page view accounting that does not seem right. There were many cases like mine, where a writer didn't contribute anything for a while and their views held steady, then added a bunch of articles and that's when their views dropped. It doesn't make any sense that you can add 30 articles and have fewer page views, but AC still claims there is no problem. I was hanging in there to get the little stream of up-front payments, but I think I'm done now that I have a day job and better-performing sites to write for. I'll rethink that if they fix the page view reporting problem.
eHow
eHow came in fourth for earnings per article this month, not far behind AC. I didn't add any articles this month and actually earned a little less than last month. However, you can't really draw any kind of conclusions about performance there right now because I only have seven articles. eHow came in last for total earnings, which is fair since I have the fewest articles there.
Examiner
Examiner came in last for earnings per article this month. I didn't add many articles in July and my page views stink. I seem to get the most views right after I publish something and promote it, then they die off. I still think that could be my fault because of topic selection and keywording. I'm supposed to be writing 3-5 articles per week there and I haven't been. I'm going to keep working on it there and see if I can turn it into something good--I know other people are doing well there, so I could too if I worked on it. Examiner earned more in total earnings than eHow thanks to having more articles, but less than everywhere else.
Conclusion
In August, I want to get Suite and Helium article volume up to the point where I get a little more per article there with the bonuses, and I want to meet my obligation at Examiner. However, with the volume of other work I have in addition to the job, we'll have to see how that goes. See you next month!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
What is so hard??
My husband and I like coffee. We like the actual taste of it, not the taste of the sugar or whatever you put in it. Coffee and cream...hot or iced. That's what we like. This doesn't seem like it would be that hard to get, but the good folks who work at McDonald's can't seem to get that...and I don't get that they don't get it.
McDonald's came out with iced coffee a year or two ago, which comes in regular (sweet), vanilla or caramel. Greg and I would go, whether inside or the drive through and order thusly: "Two large iced coffees, no flavor, no sweetener, no syrup. Just coffee and cream."
Without fail, there would be a pause, and the order taker would read it back to us in an incredulous tone of voice. "You don't want sweetener?"
"No," we would say, trying desperately to keep control of our composure. "Just regular coffee, regular cream and ice. Nothing else. No syrup, no sweetener, no flavor."
"OK," they'd say, like they thought we were nuts and we would surely be sorry. When we got to the window (or stepped aside to wait for our order, without fail, somebody would come over to ask us again. "So, you don't want sweetener?"
"No," we would say a little more firmly. "Just regular coffee, regular cream and ice. Nothing else. No syrup, no sweetener, no flavor."
After they handed us our drinks, we would start to drive or walk away, confident that our request, given in triplicate, had been honored. Almost without fail, we would taste the coffee and find it was sweet. Given that regular coffee and regular cream do not come sweet, that meant that sweetener was added. Sweetener we specifically said THREE TIMES that we didn't want.
I'm not sure how to change this. I don't think you can be any clearer than, "Just regular coffee, regular cream and ice. Nothing else. No syrup, no sweetener, no flavor." The only conclusion I can come to is that America is getting dumber, and that makes me sad. On the other hand, it makes me feel smarter, so yay me.
Michy sent me this video, which had Greg and me rolling on the floor, laughing, tears streaming from our eyes...because it's just so true. Warning: harsh language! Don't play this in the presence of young children or anyone with sensitive sensibilities!
McDonald's came out with iced coffee a year or two ago, which comes in regular (sweet), vanilla or caramel. Greg and I would go, whether inside or the drive through and order thusly: "Two large iced coffees, no flavor, no sweetener, no syrup. Just coffee and cream."
Without fail, there would be a pause, and the order taker would read it back to us in an incredulous tone of voice. "You don't want sweetener?"
"No," we would say, trying desperately to keep control of our composure. "Just regular coffee, regular cream and ice. Nothing else. No syrup, no sweetener, no flavor."
"OK," they'd say, like they thought we were nuts and we would surely be sorry. When we got to the window (or stepped aside to wait for our order, without fail, somebody would come over to ask us again. "So, you don't want sweetener?"
"No," we would say a little more firmly. "Just regular coffee, regular cream and ice. Nothing else. No syrup, no sweetener, no flavor."
After they handed us our drinks, we would start to drive or walk away, confident that our request, given in triplicate, had been honored. Almost without fail, we would taste the coffee and find it was sweet. Given that regular coffee and regular cream do not come sweet, that meant that sweetener was added. Sweetener we specifically said THREE TIMES that we didn't want.
I'm not sure how to change this. I don't think you can be any clearer than, "Just regular coffee, regular cream and ice. Nothing else. No syrup, no sweetener, no flavor." The only conclusion I can come to is that America is getting dumber, and that makes me sad. On the other hand, it makes me feel smarter, so yay me.
Michy sent me this video, which had Greg and me rolling on the floor, laughing, tears streaming from our eyes...because it's just so true. Warning: harsh language! Don't play this in the presence of young children or anyone with sensitive sensibilities!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Current Associated Content Review Time
I've heard of long waits for some people, but my Associated Content review time has been quite reasonable for the sparse pieces I've submitted lately...I submitted one on July 24th and got an offer today, the 28th--just four days later, including a weekend. I submitted one on the 15th and got an offer on the 17th...submitted one on the 3rd and got an offer on the 8th. All less than a week.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Everything you do is an article
The other day I was talking to Michy, and I said I needed software that would extract pictures from a PDF. She helped me find one, and it worked great. I was raving to her about how easy it was to use and did exactly what I wanted in seconds.
"Sounds like an article," she said.
"Oh. duh." I replied.
"And a blog post," she added.
"Good idea!" I answered. So I did...I wrote a review of the product (Nitro PDF Professional)for Suite101, and how I'm going to write a blog post about it. Oh...I'm already writing it.
Every day, you do something that can be turned into an article. See a movie, read a book or use a new product? Write a review! Do something that someone might not know how to do? Write a how-to! Hear about or plan to attend an event? Write about it...there are so many things in our day-to-day lives that slip right by us and we don't think about them, but surely someone wants to know about them. Then, each of these articles can spring into others, like I can do an article or two about how to use Nitro PDF Professional, etc.
So, here's your writing prompt for today: find one aspect of your day-to-day life and write an article about it. Then, find one way to take a different angle on the same subject matter (review, how-to, history, profile, etc.).
"Sounds like an article," she said.
"Oh. duh." I replied.
"And a blog post," she added.
"Good idea!" I answered. So I did...I wrote a review of the product (Nitro PDF Professional)for Suite101, and how I'm going to write a blog post about it. Oh...I'm already writing it.
Every day, you do something that can be turned into an article. See a movie, read a book or use a new product? Write a review! Do something that someone might not know how to do? Write a how-to! Hear about or plan to attend an event? Write about it...there are so many things in our day-to-day lives that slip right by us and we don't think about them, but surely someone wants to know about them. Then, each of these articles can spring into others, like I can do an article or two about how to use Nitro PDF Professional, etc.
So, here's your writing prompt for today: find one aspect of your day-to-day life and write an article about it. Then, find one way to take a different angle on the same subject matter (review, how-to, history, profile, etc.).
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Apple Encourages Copyright Infringement
Michy recently brought to my attention that there is an Apple iphone commercial that demonstrates its copy-and-paste functionality by showing a user copying a whole article from the web and pasting it into an email. This is ILLEGAL. For more information on why this is illegal, why you as a writer should be mad as heck about it and what you should do, please read her blog post on the subject.
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