Photo by rgk27[Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by John Lockwood, the author of Inklit.com, an Internet Writer's Blog]
Two popular web sites where you can publish your articles are EzineArticles.com and Associated Content. The two are very different in how they compensate authors. I've tried both sites, and even though Associated Content pays their writers a small amount for their work, in the long run I believe freelancers will profit more from writing free articles on EzineArticles.com.
Associated Content -- Just Enough Pay To Say There Is
Unlike EzineArticles.com, where authors receive link credits for their work, Associated Content has two types of cash payment for their authors. You can make $1.50 per thousand page views if you submit your article for "Performance Payment" only. Your article will typically be approved faster this way. You can also opt to submit your article to receive an "Up Front Payment." Many authors report the up front payment range as $3 - $40, but the Associated Content web site currently gives a range of $3 - $20.
Assuming you got a mix of up front and performance payments, these numbers might work, but at least one Associated Content author has reported numbers that are more discouraging. Christina Freeman tells us that she wrote twenty-nine articles and made about $7.00 per article, with each article taking about 45 minutes to write.
Christina is optimistic about her future earnings at Associated Content, but there are two problems that her arguments do not address.
First, California minimum wage is $8.00 per hour. Granted, $7.00 for 45 minutes works out to $9.33, but given that independent contractors pay self-employment tax, the difference doesn't amount to much. Moreover, the argument that you can make a whole $1.33 more than minimum wage is hardly compelling either way.
Equally telling is the issue of how much you can make even in principle. Much of Christina's argument that her numbers will improve over time focuses on ideas like writing better SEO optimized pages and writing more popular content. To me this seriously begs the question of how well you can do at $1.50 per 1000 views.
In contrast, I have only been running Adsense for a short time, and certainly haven't yet explored all the ways to optimize it, yet my average for this month is $3.53 per 1,000 page views. In other words, I can use tools I'm familiar with, where my articles are guaranteed to be accepted, and make more than twice as much as I can on Associated Content, from Adsense alone (let alone whatever else my content might be selling for me).
EzineArticles.com
Given what I've said so far about Associated Content, where you don't get paid much, you would think I'd really hate EzineArticles, where you don't get paid at all. Yet I'm spending considerable time there and like them a lot!
Before you decide I'm crazy, let me explain. When you write for EzineArticles, you're writing for recognition and links. Unlike Associated Content, where your byline promotes your Associated Content profile, EzineArticles.com lets you include up to six links in your author byline section, three of which may be "self-serving," i.e., may point back to the web site(s) of your choice.
From a Search Engine Optimization perspective, there's an advantage in having good quality articles with links pointing back to you, especially if they can be widely distributed through a service such as EzineArticles. Granted that the search engines probably give less weight to links from duplicate articles, there's still some advantage, not to mention the publicity from the articles and the traffic you can get from the links themselves.
Because there's a search engine advantage to article distribution, EzineArticles helps freelancers promote their businesses. Even more importantly, this is a benefit that can be sold to others in turn. Many SEO firms and marketing companies offer article syndication as part of their services. There's a viable business model in selling to the SEO experts as a subcontractor, as Jennifer Williamson pointed out recently. Depending on your technical background, you may also want to offer it to your clients directly. I plan on offering this myself, so I'm currently working on building up my EzineArticle inventory.
One thing I'll have to keep an eye on, however, is how well the articles at EzineArticles get distributed. If there isn't a fairly wide distribution, then the benefit of writing for them diminishes substantially. I'll be researching this going forward.
EzineArticles the Winner on the Small Stuff As Well
To recap, EzineArticles wins on the major argument. As a businessperson, I don't mind doing something "for nothing," if that something will help me make more money in the long term. I find this better than getting less than half of someone else's Adsense revenue, especially when I could be developing that revenue stream on a new or existing web site that might pay me in other ways as well.
Before leaving the two, however, I want to also mention that EzineArticles is also easier to use than Associated Content. The sign-up process for EzineArticles is much shorter. Moreover, the editing and previewing interface in EzineArticles is a joy to use, while Associated Content's was more cumbersome.
On the editorial side, when Associated Content held up my first article on the basis of having bullet points, I decided that their editorial standards were a bit too strict for minimum wage. The list format is an enormously popular and easy to write format, so I don't understand their justification in disallowing it. In contrast, I ran afoul of the editorial guidelines on EzineArticles only on my third article.
John Lockwood is a freelance writer with a background in residential real estate sales and software development. He is the author of Inklit.com, an Internet Writer's Blog. Inklit is currently running a Six Month Free Ad promotion -- please mention Jesse Hines and VigorousWriting.net if you subscribe to help Jesse win the ad.
If you liked this post, subscribe to future Vigorous Writing updates in a reader or get Vigorous Writing updates delivered to your email.
Related Posts
Almost Everything in Life is Negotiable--Even for Freelance Writers
How Much Time Should Professional Writers Spend Blogging?
Two popular web sites where you can publish your articles are EzineArticles.com and Associated Content. The two are very different in how they compensate authors. I've tried both sites, and even though Associated Content pays their writers a small amount for their work, in the long run I believe freelancers will profit more from writing free articles on EzineArticles.com.
Associated Content -- Just Enough Pay To Say There Is
Unlike EzineArticles.com, where authors receive link credits for their work, Associated Content has two types of cash payment for their authors. You can make $1.50 per thousand page views if you submit your article for "Performance Payment" only. Your article will typically be approved faster this way. You can also opt to submit your article to receive an "Up Front Payment." Many authors report the up front payment range as $3 - $40, but the Associated Content web site currently gives a range of $3 - $20.
Assuming you got a mix of up front and performance payments, these numbers might work, but at least one Associated Content author has reported numbers that are more discouraging. Christina Freeman tells us that she wrote twenty-nine articles and made about $7.00 per article, with each article taking about 45 minutes to write.
Christina is optimistic about her future earnings at Associated Content, but there are two problems that her arguments do not address.
First, California minimum wage is $8.00 per hour. Granted, $7.00 for 45 minutes works out to $9.33, but given that independent contractors pay self-employment tax, the difference doesn't amount to much. Moreover, the argument that you can make a whole $1.33 more than minimum wage is hardly compelling either way.
Equally telling is the issue of how much you can make even in principle. Much of Christina's argument that her numbers will improve over time focuses on ideas like writing better SEO optimized pages and writing more popular content. To me this seriously begs the question of how well you can do at $1.50 per 1000 views.
In contrast, I have only been running Adsense for a short time, and certainly haven't yet explored all the ways to optimize it, yet my average for this month is $3.53 per 1,000 page views. In other words, I can use tools I'm familiar with, where my articles are guaranteed to be accepted, and make more than twice as much as I can on Associated Content, from Adsense alone (let alone whatever else my content might be selling for me).
EzineArticles.com
Given what I've said so far about Associated Content, where you don't get paid much, you would think I'd really hate EzineArticles, where you don't get paid at all. Yet I'm spending considerable time there and like them a lot!
Before you decide I'm crazy, let me explain. When you write for EzineArticles, you're writing for recognition and links. Unlike Associated Content, where your byline promotes your Associated Content profile, EzineArticles.com lets you include up to six links in your author byline section, three of which may be "self-serving," i.e., may point back to the web site(s) of your choice.
From a Search Engine Optimization perspective, there's an advantage in having good quality articles with links pointing back to you, especially if they can be widely distributed through a service such as EzineArticles. Granted that the search engines probably give less weight to links from duplicate articles, there's still some advantage, not to mention the publicity from the articles and the traffic you can get from the links themselves.
Because there's a search engine advantage to article distribution, EzineArticles helps freelancers promote their businesses. Even more importantly, this is a benefit that can be sold to others in turn. Many SEO firms and marketing companies offer article syndication as part of their services. There's a viable business model in selling to the SEO experts as a subcontractor, as Jennifer Williamson pointed out recently. Depending on your technical background, you may also want to offer it to your clients directly. I plan on offering this myself, so I'm currently working on building up my EzineArticle inventory.
One thing I'll have to keep an eye on, however, is how well the articles at EzineArticles get distributed. If there isn't a fairly wide distribution, then the benefit of writing for them diminishes substantially. I'll be researching this going forward.
EzineArticles the Winner on the Small Stuff As Well
To recap, EzineArticles wins on the major argument. As a businessperson, I don't mind doing something "for nothing," if that something will help me make more money in the long term. I find this better than getting less than half of someone else's Adsense revenue, especially when I could be developing that revenue stream on a new or existing web site that might pay me in other ways as well.
Before leaving the two, however, I want to also mention that EzineArticles is also easier to use than Associated Content. The sign-up process for EzineArticles is much shorter. Moreover, the editing and previewing interface in EzineArticles is a joy to use, while Associated Content's was more cumbersome.
On the editorial side, when Associated Content held up my first article on the basis of having bullet points, I decided that their editorial standards were a bit too strict for minimum wage. The list format is an enormously popular and easy to write format, so I don't understand their justification in disallowing it. In contrast, I ran afoul of the editorial guidelines on EzineArticles only on my third article.
John Lockwood is a freelance writer with a background in residential real estate sales and software development. He is the author of Inklit.com, an Internet Writer's Blog. Inklit is currently running a Six Month Free Ad promotion -- please mention Jesse Hines and VigorousWriting.net if you subscribe to help Jesse win the ad.
If you liked this post, subscribe to future Vigorous Writing updates in a reader or get Vigorous Writing updates delivered to your email.
Related Posts
Almost Everything in Life is Negotiable--Even for Freelance Writers
How Much Time Should Professional Writers Spend Blogging?
5 comments:
Interesting post. I tend to think AC and Ezine are a waste of time.
Yes, I'm sure an effective case can be made against either of them by someone with the minimal courage needed to link to an alternative body of work.
Hummm, I write for both AC and EzineArticles, and I see them as two completely different animals and wouldn't have ever thought to compare them, because they are so radically different.
I make over $100 per month in performance bonus. Yes, my Adsense blogs make more per page view, but they don't have near the traffic I get on AC, so what I lose in per page view, I more than make for in volume.
My upfront average is over $12.00 per article... and here where I live, that's more than double our minimum wage. I make more freelancing for print, but I just ENJOY AC. (I also won their best text PMA award this year.)
As for EzineArticles, for promoting my business, I've not found a single article submission site that works like they do. I've been totally and completely impressed with their professionalism, their website, you name it. Chris is awesome and love his blog.
But I use them for a different purpose. One is for writing whatever I want to write about while the other is promoting myself as an expert in my field and drawing business/ clients/ traffic to my website.
Again, two completely different animals, IMO.
Love and stuff,
Michy
Michelle,
Thanks for your perspective.
I haven't used either AC or EZ yet, so getting John to do the comparison was a nice little education overview for me as well as anybody else who has yet to try them out.
It looks like you've been able to use both quite well, and you've been able to maximize each for its unique intended purposes.
Thanks for stopping by and offering your insight.
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for your comments. I agree that they're quite different, though I don't see how that prevents comparing them -- actually it made it easier.
I'm glad to hear you're doing well with AC. Your point about higher traffic on AC is a good one -- I would then tend to see the task as increasing traffic rather than writing more on AC, but to each our own. Thanks again for the comments.
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