Freelancing at Home

Examiners, can you answer me?

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:05:00 +0000

I can't access Examiner's Community so I can't ask there, so Examiners who may read this blog, are you receiving less earnings than normal for the month of April?

My daily pageviews, bounce rate, time on page, etc. are all within normal ranges for what they have been for many months now, but my earnings are 50% less than they have previously been.

I was making $4 - $5 a day. I'm now barely breaking $2 a day, and that's with the exact same amount of pageviews.

Did I miss an announcement somewhere that they were coming up with yet another reason to slash our pay?

Memory Lane

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 23:58:00 +0000

Examiner is trying my nerves today. They’re doing a flat-fee offer for slideshows - $1 per slideshow, up to $5 per week, per title - until the end of the month - and so in the midst of trying to get this week’s batch finished off, problems just keep cropping up and CS is about to make me rip my hair out. ARGH!

Okay, enough about that. In order to relax myself, I actually took a stroll down memory lane with this blog. I didn’t realize I had so many posts on here. Most of them are about eHow and happened during the whole eHow UK, closing out new publishers and finally closing the WCP entirely fiasco, but somehow this was all very relaxing - maybe because it’s in the past and it’s a site I don’t have to ever worry about going through that song and dance with again.

I also found myself smiling like a fool a few times and so I hope some of you old eHowers who read this can get a smile from these things too.

First up, Larry Zafran’s earning theory for eHow! http://freelancewriterswanted-freebieoffers.blogspot.com/2010/06/larry-zafrans-earning-theory.html

I remember when that was first posted and how some of you, whom I shall leave nameless, but you know who you are, must have just stared in horror at all the numbers, and then asked Larry to do the calculations for you. And then all the jokes. Ah, great fun.

Really, this post just made me remember a lot about the forums and some of the fun we had. The games playing with the fortune teller primarily. I wish I still had the charts for who was going to marry who; so many love triangles, squares and octagons. I do recall that I was going to marry Q though... and I remember someone else was, too.

And then there was this post about the first announcements of eHow closing the publishing doors. http://freelancewriterswanted-freebieoffers.blogspot.com/2010/04/ehow-merging-with-demand-studios-what.html

Good grief, I remember how insane the forums got. The posts were flying in at a mile a minute and I could practically hear everyone’s keyboards clacking away in unison. That may not sound like a pleasant memory, but it just reminded me how ‘this too shall pass’. It also reminded me of my conversation with Remi. I didn’t talk with her for long, because I didn’t have many questions, but she was so pleasant; it was the single best interaction I’d ever had with a person employed by Demand Media.

Do you remember when Redgage was brand new? http://freelancewriterswanted-freebieoffers.blogspot.com/2009/10/redgage-backlink-building.html

Oh, how excited we all were. How we all flocked around the Redgage thread in the eHow forum and congratulated and patted each other on the back when we won the $50 contest that was going on. It was so fun to see all the eHowers there and each one of us getting picked up one by one for a $50 win - yes, I know not everyone got one, but it was really cool how many of us did.

Okay, that’s enough of a trip down memory lane. Stop sitting there and get back to writing useful content!

Examiner Sucks

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 20:55:00 +0000

Yes, I could probably come up with a more creative title but, seriously, Examiner sucks. Nothing more eloquent is needed.

The pay is absolute crap - they recently decided they can no longer afford to monetize international page views, despite the international pages still having ads on them, so Examiners are not getting paid for all views anymore, they also continue to find reasons to drop flat-fee payments and change them frequently (my theory is it's an attempt to get you to keep doing x without realizing x no longer earns you a flat-fee - and this happens often on the forum). I feel bad for anyone reporting about international news; my own pay hasn't dropped since I didn't have much of a foreign audience, but many do, and the pages are still clearly monetized, meaning someone is getting paid for it, just not the writer.

The support center, meant to be your one stop shop to figure out how to write for the site, is missing important information, contains outdated information and contains outright incorrect information (they change the newsworthy requirement to 48 hours at least 3 months ago, but all the support information still states 72 hours).

And, worst of all, they have terrible independent contractor service. I dread, absolutely dread, having to send them any sort of support ticket, because at least 50% of the time I receive some completely snarky, inappropriate or unhelpful response back. Send them a ticket, along with screenshot evidence, that the site has something broken, they'll send you a message back telling you it's working fine on their end. Not even kidding, that was the extent of several of my ticket responses about problems on the site. Have a problem with a review of your article being incorrect - citing spelling errors that are not actually errors, for example - and you may get lucky and have them overturn it, or you may get the 'senior manager of content and media' (I don't know how many people with that title they have, but every time I've gotten someone with this title, they're an ass) who argues that it was correct or that it doesn't matter so just ignore it.

And, of course, anytime I try to write heavily on the site - either because news is booming in my topic, or because I'm trying to focus on making more money that month - something will inevitably go wrong and I'll have to submit a support ticket.

Well, I feel better. I just needed to vent about how awful this site is. Sadly, I can't escape it either, because you have to post once a month in order to receive payment for older articles. I don't want to lose payment for 400 articles.

Black Label Ads/Adbrite Shut Down

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 02:08:00 +0000

Wow, it's been a while since I've written on here, but I'm rather upset right now. Apparently Adbrite and Black Label Ads (same company owned both, one was adult ads the other was not) shut down in February 2013.

I just went to log in today because I could have sworn I was at payout in January 2013 but I never received a check. Well, surprise surprise, there is no site anymore. It's just a 404 error page.

I do a bit of looking about the web and low and behold, they announced the shut down and sent e-mails, but only some people got the e-mails. Others were as baffled as I about the sudden disappearance.

So now it's off to find another adult ad provider. Of course, I've now been sitting on a couple sites with no ads for a couple months (and never got paid my final payout, on top of that, and have no proof I earned it since the entire site is gone now).

Lesson learned. Log in bi-monthly, minimum, and take screenshots of your dashboard so you can file proof with the BBB if another ad company ever goes under.

Seekyt may be going down

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:29:00 +0000

Seekyt.com is no longer in Google's good graces. Apparently a member received a violation notice and failed to report it to the administrator so ads got shut down across the entire site. It's not looking particularly good to get them turned back on considering how small the site is.

It might be time to start looking into alternatives. Seekyt.com was looking like a promising place for a while, but if Adsense doesn't get turned back on I'm going to be abandoning ship. Other ad programs don't pay nearly enough to justify leaving my content on Seekyt if the administrator gets approved with another company.

I'll be giving the site some time to hopefully work things out with Google, but if that falls through I'm going to be transferring articles to Infobarrel.com and elsewhere - not sure where yet, but elsewhere.

If you haven't read the story, please visit here: http://seekyt.com/current-status-adsense-on-seekyt-com/

Seekyt Scam

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:23:00 +0000

Until today I would have recommended Seekyt as a great start-up site; however, my Adsense profile never displayed the site impressions, clicks or earnings properly. I thought this was something similar to what Shetoldme.com does, where it doesn't show on your Adsense profile, but it does register as earnings. I even contacted the owner when I first noticed this and was told that it was normal.

Today I was told by a WebAnswers.com member that his Adsense profile shows his Seekyt impressions and earnings just fine. So I began to poke about at my profile page to try and figure out what was going on.

Under my profile and settings, I realized that my pub ID was blank. I tried to put it in again. It showed up blank again despite telling me my settings were saved. I contacted the owner to ask if that was normal and to let him know that if the site was broken I had lost 7 months worth of earnings and seeing as most of my articles are Halloween-based, I had lost a good chunk of money.

While waiting for a response, I continued for half an hour to keep putting in my pub ID using different browsers until finally it stuck.

The owner contacted me a few hours later and told me that the blank pub ID was normal (which begs the question, why did everyone I ask say they could see theirs and why did mine stick after trying repeatedly?) and that it was a security feature. And that if my Adsense profile wasn't displaying Seekyt earnings it was because I hadn't put Seekyt.com into my URL channels. Except that I had, because I'm not stupid. And that right now I needed to focus on promoting my content and not worry about earnings because they don't come immediately (except I've been writing online for over 5 years and for that site for 7 months; even crappy sites show pennies after that long).

Oh, and magically, after getting the pub ID to stick in the settings box, I began registering impressions from my Seekyt content.

I sent an e-mail to the Seekyt administrator letting him know this and to not talk down to me as he had done in the previous e-mail. I let him know that this was proof I had lost 7 months worth of income since he was the only one earning on my articles during that period since his site didn't register my Adsense ID properly. I also said I was going to be looking for a different site to write for since I don't like being treated like a child or lied to (as that's exactly what happened since views only register after getting your ID to stick).

He told me I was accusing him of stealing (which is ridiculous since I was saying that I lost 7 months of income, not that he intentionally stole it) and that I should have contacted him sooner if I thought there was a problem (which I did and was told even then that whatever problem I was having was 'normal').

Beware this site. The administrator is absolutely useless if you try to contact him and will try to brush off anything you bring to him as 'normal' even if it's obviously not what everyone else is experiencing.

And to anyone who's currently a member, you better check to make sure you're Adsense publisher ID is showing properly and that Seekyt.com is registering impressions on your Adsense page. Just because I'm the first to notice (after being told by staff what I was seeing was normal) doesn't mean it's not happening to others.

Leaving ListMyFive

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Fri, 06 May 2011 04:45:00 +0000

ListMyFive showed great potential when it was first started. It could have done great things, but the owners decided to let quality fall to the wayside as they gunned to get as much content as possible. In the past this was a great idea as it worked for giants like Squidoo, eHow and Hubpages. Problem is, just a few months after the creation of ListMyFive, Google laid the smackdown on content farms.

While other sites scrambled to monitor quality and delete spammy, crappy, duplicate content, ListMyFive sat on its hands. In fact, I'm pretty sure the owners of the site haven't been communicating at all. And e-mails to support have gone completely unanswered.

So, I reached my $10 payout last month (and will get paid this month) and I just removed all of my LM5 articles. I will be waiting a week or so now for the Google cache to clear so I can post these articles up on the other sites I work for. I'm spreading them between Seekyt.com and Infobarrel.com.

I figure this is the perfect opportunity to boost my library without any additional work on my part.

eHow is Dead and Buried

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Fri, 06 May 2011 01:44:00 +0000

The site may still be there and it may still show up in search engines (not that I used the site since I knew what bunk most of the articles were), but to freelance writers, eHow.com is no longer the cash cow it once was.

Today, May 5, I received an e-mail that announced "Important news about your articles on ehow.com". At first I held my breath thinking they were once again deleting content at random as they had been doing for months. Well, I was partially right, but boy was I ever wrong. What I read instead floored me, smacked me in the face and then kicked me in the ribs a couple times. eHow is closing down the WCP permanently.

It's closing down today and, unless you take their special offer, you will receive your last payment (for May 1 - 5, despite the fact that they won't remove articles until May 30) next month, as usual (even if you don't make $10). If you do accept the offer you'll receive your next two payouts on June 15 and July 15.

It's a logical step, but all this time we've been told our articles will remain posted and continue to earn. I feel like I was lied to. I shouldn't be shocked though considering the week before closing the WCP they told us there were no plans to close the WCP.

Internet Copyright Laws and How to Stop Copyright Infringement

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:35:00 +0000

Note: This method to protect internet copyright laws will only work if you own your website or blog, can add HTML to your content or have access in another way to the main HTML code of the website/article pages.

You automatically get a copyright on anything you create. If you post it online though, you may be at a disadvantage for protecting your copyright. There are a variety of ways people go about trying to stop copyright infringement. I believe that most instances of copyright infringement online are from people who don’t know they can’t just take anything they want online. This method can protect your internet copyright laws from such misinformed people.

I have always found the idea of disabling right-click, in order to protect internet copyright laws and stop infringement, to be a bad idea. Not only will determined thieves go around this, but you will be shooting yourself in the foot when honest people cannot copy and paste a portion of your content in order to give a preview of your content with a link.

You can set up your first line of defense to protect the internet copyright laws by ‘forcing’ people to take only as many words as you wish and requiring not one, but two backlinks to the content they are copying an intro from. This can be done with a website called embedanything.com.

Just give it a try. Try to copy anything from this article.

When you click copy a popup will appear offering a script code if you wish to use the link on your website or blog.

When the given code is posted to your blog or website it will insert however many words have been set as allowed, as well as pictures and videos if allowed, and two links to the original article.

With embedanything.com you have the option to set how many words you would like to allow to be used as an intro - this blog is set for 150 words - you can strip out pictures and videos - this protects the copyrights of some photos you may have received from free sites and makes sure people have to come to your website in order to see videos - and can even add an ad block (300X250) to the embed code - which gives you a chance to earn additional money even if the link isn’t clicked to read more. I chose not to have an ad block connected to any of the blogs I am using EmbedAnything on; I feel generally uncomfortable forcing ad blocks on people, and I figure the two backlinks are payment enough for an intro only.

Top Paid Surveys Reviews: How I Freelance at Home

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 10:58:00 +0000

Paid Surveys Reviews:

Top Paid Surveys -

Pineconeresearch.com: You earn $3 per survey that you complete. The great thing is, if they give you the survey, you are automatically qualified for it. No answering questions for half an hour just to be told you don’t qualify and get nothing. They pay with Paypal on the following business day of completing the survey. You also can get free promotional freebies to test and then another $3 to tell them what you think about the product you just tried for free. Must register through banners and referral links.

Opinionoutpost.com: Range of earnings varies greatly from $2.50 up to $50 or more. The problem with opinion outpost is that you probably won’t qualify for even half the surveys they offer to you, no matter how up-to-date and accurate your profile information is, and you will walk away with nothing if you test out of the survey. In the end, the rewards can outweigh all the times you test out and get nothing, but it can definitely be frustrating. Minimum payout of $15 for a check or $5 for an Amazon gift card. Other donation and payment options have been added recently.

Buzzback: Pays through Paypal with a minimum payout of $15. There are not many surveys available and there are no profiles to complete, so I'm not sure how they decide which surveys to give you. Unless they just give you all of them, which means you will be disqualified from 99% of the surveys they give. Currently in testing.

Surveyhead: Like Opinion Outpost, Survey Head poses the problem of not qualifying for half the surveys you begin to take. Survey Head offers more benefits though since it has only a $50 minimum payout paid through Paypal. *t also offers a $5 signup bonus. The profiles you need to complete for all survey sites (usually for free) are worth $2.35, putting you that much closer to your first payout. Prior to $50 you can get magazine subscription prizes at lower levels.

Top Points Surveys -

zoompanel.com: Point rewards range from 5 for testing out of a survey to 200 for more personal surveys (think periods, yeast infections, etc.). Points can be used to purchase kitchen supplies, magazines, movies, books and much more from the Zoompanel catalog.

Erewards.com: Range of pay varies from 25 cents to $50 (the highest I’ve encountered and qualified for so far). You may be disqualified for surveys they invite you to take, but you never walk away empty handed and I have never taken more than 5 minutes to test out of their surveys. You can turn the erewards money they give you into magazine subscriptions, gift cards and much more. I have been getting Gamestop gift cards. Can only join if you are invited by Gamestop, J. C. Penny or other companies that work with Erewards.

If you’re interested in more ways to earn money freelancing at home you may be interested in these articles:

Freelance Writing at Home

Other Work Online

Promotional Freebies for the Work At Home Group

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 23:08:00 +0000

Vista Print wants to help you get your home business organized for the new year. Whether you need business cards, stamps, a calendar to keep dates or a coffee mug to get you going in the morning, Vista Print wants you to have your first 6 items completely free. Take advantage of this great deal now!

Yes, I know this is not entirely free. You still have to pay shipping and handling, but this is a way better deal than you'll find in any store.

Freelance Writers Wanted: How I Work at Home

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 11:02:00 +0000

My newest love affair on the internet is WebAnswers.com. One of the questions that is asked at least once a day is ‘how can I earn a living online?’ or some variation thereof. So I thought I would go ahead and list all the places I work at online right now. Sort of as a reference for myself, because I work at so many places it’s easy to forget them all.

I will regularly update this when I add more sites that are similar to the list so bookmark this if you want to keep up-to-date with the workings of the web and my income.

Some sites may be repeated multiple times as they either have multiple ways of earning or I use them in multiple ways. I’m sure you can figure it out as you go and I’ll try to give descriptions of each one on a basic level.

Buckle up, this is going to be a very long ride.

Freelance Writers Wanted:

Revenue share sites -

Infobarrel.com: This site offers minor vetting of articles - the first 10 are looked at by moderators before you are set free into the system to wreak havoc as you please (but please don’t, I kind of like this site) - and a 75% revenue share from Google Adsense. There is also a share of Chitika ad clicks available. For even more earning potential, as if Google and Chitika combined isn’t enough, the Amazon affiliate program is built-in. PR 4.

Bukisa.com: I didn’t used to like this website due to the fact that I was bombarded with referral link after referral link, but that is all in the past and Bukisa no longer even has a referral system. They now offer revenue share from Google Adsense or Chitika - only one or the other, not both. Adsense share is 60%. Nothing says a percentage for Chitika so I assume it’s 100%. That may sound like the better deal, but remember Chitika earnings per click are very, very low. PR 5.

Xomba.com: Xomba is one of my least profitable Google Adsense revenue sharing sites I’ve used since it only offers a 50% revenue share on your content. This is the lowest I’ve seen anywhere on the web. This site used to be useful for bookmarking purposes, but since it has done away with that potential, I’ll probably be removing it from my freelance writing resume. PR 4.

Seekyt.com: Seekyt is a new freelance writing website that offers 70% revenue share. Like Infobarrel the ability to earn with the Amazon affiliate program is built-in. PR 0.

Blogger.com: Create your own blogs and earn 100% revenue off any ad clicks with any ad programs or affiliate programs you choose to use.

Flat rate sites -

Demand Media: Pay varies based on the type of content you are writing. How to content for eHow.com runs at about $15 per article on average. Tips sheets are $3 and there are lots of price ranges and article types in between. Tips sheets are probably your best bet if you want the money to come in fast and easily. Quality control is stringent and editors seem to be a little nuts sometimes, introducing more errors than they had you fix, so don’t connect your real name to your work here. Pays every two weeks through Paypal.

Break Studios: $8 per article may seem like it’s lower than what Demand Media promises, but the quality control at Break Studios is much lower. The chance of a re-write is very low and in the time it takes me to do one Demand Media article worth $15 I can do two articles for Break Studios. That may only be $1 extra an hour, but I’ll take it! Pays monthly through Paypal.

Associated Content: Associated content has a variety of ways to earn and if you’re looking for some flat-fee payment, they will deliver. Payment is determined after submission and normally ranges from $2 - $15. You can also choose from article titles they want with prices already listed.

Seed.com: Seed is a competitive site for freelance writers. It’s competitive both in the price paid per article and in the fact that only one article of all those submitted will be accepted and paid for. Those who are not accepted and paid for will retain the copyright to their content so you can easily take the article and place it on a revenue sharing website instead. I see this as a good opportunity, but many freelance writers are put off by the competitive nature of the site.

Secret algorithm sites -

Ehow.com: Now defunct. eHow is no longer open to new freelance writers or new content. You must go through Demand Media to write for eHow.

Listmyfive.com: Create short top 5 lists for a share of the revenue based on a variety of factors. This is pretty much a rip-off of the original eHow WCP so it can definitely be comforting to those who were left out in the cold when eHow so rudely slammed the door on our noses. Minimum payout is $10 paid through Paypal the month after you earn the full $10. PR 0.

Examiner.com: Views seem to be the biggest factor in earnings and pay has plummeted from the original ~$1 per 100 views to a whole 62 cents per 100 views on average. This can fluctuate a bit, but doesn’t seem to change up or down very much between freelancers. Local examiners can earn an additional $2 - $4 a week by publishing between 2 and 4 qualifying articles in the same Sunday - Saturday period. Minimum payout is $25 paid through Paypal on the 20th of the month after you earn the full $25. Must post once a month or lose all your accumulated earnings. To help me out, tell them I sent you with the code: 18887. Thank you. PR 3.

Squidoo.com: Squidoo is another site that is based mostly on pay per view but there are other factors that come into play, such as people liking your article, clicking links within your article and e-mailing it, etc. PR 7.

Demand Media: Demand Media, like Associated Content, has a variety of pay options. After experimenting with the eHow WCP, they decided revenue share articles were profitable to both them and the writers. They now use the same - or the employees say it is the same - secret algorithm the original eHow WCP used. PR 8 on eHow.

Pay per view sites -

Associated Content: Content written for Associated Content does not have to be accepted for a flat-fee only as I write about above. It can also earn based on views. This per view payment can vary based on which websites Yahoo! chooses to feature your content though so I can't give definitive numbers. This is in addition to the upfront fee listed above!

And now that we’ve covered all the places I write, you might also be interested in:

Different Ad Programs

Favorite Affiliate Programs

Social Bookmarking

Top Paid Surveys

Other Work Online

Free Tax Preparation at Home with H&R Block

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 22:22:00 +0000

I just did my taxes and boy was I peeved when I got to H&R block and discovered it was actually $120 to get my taxes done. I didn’t know the cost until after it was all said and done though so I had to just suck it up and go with it.

Thankfully, you don’t have to be stuck in the same position. Get H&R Block support and get it for completely free along with your free federal filing.

Examiner.com Earnings

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:23:00 +0000

After doing my last post about Examiner.com almost being a scam, I have found myself skyrocketed into the top 5 of my local examiners. No, the post had nothing to do with this raise, it just happened to happen. Halloween is what is giving me this raise, as I have a variety of Halloween articles on Examiner, including How to do Punk Zombie Makeup.

What I wanted to talk about was my earnings while I have been in these top 5 examiners within my area. Because what I'm seeing really makes me cringe, not to mention doubt all the people who claim to easily make the $25 payout each month. Oh, I'm sure many national examiners do, but unless my area is unusually low in receiving views from other areas, not as many people who claim to make payout are doing so.

Usually it takes me two months to make $25 with 51 articles.

Now that I'm in the top 5, I'm on target to make about $30 for October. Yes, I have made payout, so it's at least something to celebrate. However, check out my earnings page.

Yes, a whopping 252 views for one day and only making $1.63. This is from a few days ago when I first got onto the top 5 in Pittsburgh list, but the views have only gone higher while the money has stagnated. As of today, I got 435 views and only $2.30 in earnings.

As if that weren't enough to make you sad, I want to point out that since I'm in spot 4 - spot 3 now - that means I am earning more money than everyone from spot 5 down. Since I, in spot 4, am just slightly over payout, that implies that most people in the Pittsburgh area are not regularly making payout.

Listmyfive Earnings

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 01:32:00 +0000

Listmyfive.com is a new Internet writing platform for freelancers who want to write in the Top 5 format. The lists are fun and simple. Like eHow or a variety of other websites, Listmyfive keeps the earnings algorithm a secret, though they claim it is based off a large number of variable factors, including incoming links, ad revenue share, views, and few other things.

This is similar to eHow's earnings claims, but unlike eHow, I actually believe that Listmyfive is taking all these things into account. It seems most people are bound and determined to think we're earning a penny per ad click - which is silly considering we have no idea when an ad is clicked unless you're clicking your own ads or are part of a clickfraud ring.

But, I have proof to accompany my theory, which is that Listmyfive earnings are based, at the very least, on views first - a few pennies here and there for quality views, ie. staying a certain period of time or navigating elsewhere on the site rather than the back button - and based on ad revenue share second.

I've blacked out the title of the article, because that's not really anyone's business but my own, and sorry for the gray marks over the stats; I had it highlighted when I did a screen shot and it came out with the highlighting intact. Oops. Either way, here it is. Views, comments, star rating and earnings. Clearly we make more than a penny a click or a penny per view or whatever it is people are currently theorizing we make.

This article earned 28 cents on its third day of existence. A friend told me he clicked an ad - after some serious probing and questions of 'how did you find this nifty website' and answers of 'one of the links on your article' - and so I watched to see if anything ever showed as significant earnings on the article. Two days after he clicked something, 28 cents appeared, which is within norms of an ad click on this particular keyword phrase. The article was still displaying only one view.

Over the next few weeks, the article has only accumulated a handful of views and only 2 more cents.

No matter how you slice it though, there is no Earthly way this article was earning a penny per click - which would require the amount earned to be a good deal less than the views. Instead, I have 11 cents more in Listmyfive earnings than the number of views on this article.

Listmyfive has remained silent about earnings, but I suspect they will continue to do so, and I only imagine them breaking silence to say, 'please see our FAQ which lays out our payment algorithm' which is the most annoying non-answer ever. If they wanted the algorithm to be transparent they would have made it that way to start with.

Edit: LM5 staff updated information available shortly after I made this post. My theory about Listmyfive earnings was confirmed.

Payments - why do I see a penny here and a penny there? We have explained this a couple of times before, but let me make it a bit more clear. We pay a percentage of the clicks that google adsense reports to us. If they don't report a click, they must have deemed it a fraudulent click. Some clicks are a penny, but most legitimate clicks are much more than that. We don't only pay on clicks though. We use many other variables, it is not a trivial algorithm, it is well thought out, and benefits those that benefit LM5 the most. If you see a penny here and penny there, you were most likely paid from the algorithm and not an ad click. The algorithm can pay much more than a penny here and there as well. Also, the views you see, are not used in the algorithm, they are views for your convenience, to see traffic increases through your online efforts. As you all know, we are a new site, and the amount of traffic we receive from search engines is still relatively low, but it is definitely increasing steadily. With time, as many of you have mentioned and deduced already, search engine traffic will increase dramatically. We need strong solid users initially to make that a future reality. We feel we have a great core of users, and we are very grateful for them.

Examiner.com Becoming a Scam

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 22:10:00 +0000

Okay, Examiner.com is not really a scam and probably won’t ever be an out-and-out scam because they still pay, but over the year I’ve been writing for them, my earnings per view have dwindled. In the beginning, Examiner.com paid almost a penny per view. Then they recalibrated the payout to include some other factors, but it still came out to close to a penny. Now, a year later, I’m down to half a penny per view, if I’m lucky.

Sites can recalibrate their pay all they want, but while Examiner.com is paying less and less per view than ever, they are adding more and more ads than ever. There is a pop-up when you go to login to the site, a Clicksor ad, I believe, and even a bottom banner pop-up when you are trying to publish an article. I should be compensated for being bombarded with ads while trying to work for this site, not earning less than ever before.

On top of that, Examiner.com holds its writers hostage to this pathetic pay. After a year, I have gained a rather large library of articles - not the 300+ that some have, but extensive to me - and the option to leave and just keep earning residual money no longer exists as it did when I joined. Examiner.com now demands that writers post once a month to remain active or Examiner.com doesn’t have to pay you anymore. And if you choose to quit and no longer post, Examiner keeps the articles you have published and the money for those articles rather than paying it to the author.

If you have a large number of articles it feels really bad and stupid to just leave all that behind and any potential money it’s earning. You might as well just flush all your time and money down the toilet at that point.

Examiner.com is going the way of eHow as far as bugs and glitches go, too. Not only do we get a severe pay cut, about 40%, but we have to deal with broken publishing tools, poorly laid out pages with Examiner 2.0 and broken earning reports.

Examiner may never go the way of the dodo like eHow did due to the need for writers to actually run their ‘news reports’ that are very rarely news, but at this rate, people might be jumping ship pretty fast.

If you have only a few articles, or haven’t started for Examiner.com yet, then run. Turn tail and run as fast as you can to another site that plays more fair with its writers. Yes, you may leave behind a few articles, but it’s better to get out now rather than be saddled with Examiner.com when they lower their pay even more.

Keyword Research and SEO Competition Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:32:00 +0000

Go get the Cherry Picker Software beta for absolutely free. This is a program that analyzes keywords, much like Google Adwords tools, analyzes the top 10 Google competition for that keyword, kinda like you'd have to do by hand if you weren't using some software, and more.

I, personally, downloaded this then uninstalled it, but that's because I have a far more comprehensive program that I paid actual money for - and let me tell you, Market Samurai is worth every shiny penny I spent on it. But I'm not here to talk about Market Samurai, let's talk about Cherry Picker.

First off, it's a huge joke to suggest that this software is anywhere close to worth $10,000. If that's what Ryan Deiss, the creator of Cherry Picker, paid for something similar then, boy, you got had! Market Samurai is more comprehensive and costs just $149. In its infancy - when it had abilities similar to what Cherry Picker currently has - it was around $34 if I remember correctly.

As far as I can tell, this Cherry Picker program is basically a rip off of another free software called WebCEO that is an equally good program, older and as far as I can tell, more accurate.

Cherry Picker currently only analyzes the United States Google competition rather than the worldwide competition. While this might be useful if that's all you want to rank in, who wants to give up worldwide niches when they could easily get into one? Also, Market Samurai analyzes worldwide, US and anywhere else you want if you just specify what you're looking for.

Cherry Picker also has some inaccurate information. I did some comparisons for keywords I rank highly in and was told I had a 0 page rank on a page, when I know that page has a PR4. It also claimed some of these have no backlinks when they have at least 20 that I set out into the Internet on my own, not to mention any others that may have cropped up.

All in all, Cherry Picker is an okay little program for being a beta. As long as Ryan Deiss updates it and gets it working based on the complaints he's now receiving it will probably become something that rivals WebCEO - but only wishes it could grow up to be Market Samurai.

If you have the money, I'd recommend buying Market Samurai for its accuracy alone, nevermind all the dozens and dozens of extra features Cherry Picker will probably never offer.

If you don't want to spend money, I totally understand, as I waited until just this year to purchase Market Samurai. Previous to that I was using WebCEO and good old fashioned leg work and that's what I would recommend over Cherry Picker. The program is older, seems more comprehensive and already has all the bugs and kinks worked out.

If you just must have Cherry Picker then good luck and I hope the beta version gets ironed out fast. Really, I think my biggest aversion to it this whole 'it's worth $10,000 and I'm such a nice guy I'll give it for free' when many companies give away similar tools and tools with way more capabilities are sold for very cheap.

I really wish people wouldn't use such dirty marketing tactics.

Examiner Publishing Tool Update

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 02:32:00 +0000

Ever since I started working for Examiner.com they have been doing update after update after update on their publishing tool in attempts to make it more user friendly. The updates have successfully made some things easier to use - like posting at all - but has also made some things an absolute nightmare to do - posting multiple pictures or strategically positioned pictures.
Well, Examiner.com has up and decided to change the entire publishing tool and is going to Examiner.com2.0. The official release date for this is unknown, but Examiner does keep sending e-mails that writers need to back up their work if they have any articles that are in unpublished mode.

Furthermore, the e-mails have stated that any articles that were done using the current publishing tool(s) - there are two - will not be able to be updated ever again. The articles will migrate with you to 2.0 but they will remain as they are forever. This sucks a bunch considering how many articles can be repeatedly updated with the publication of a few more articles.

The solution if you want to continue to be able to write with that article? Back up the article, unpublish it and then publish it when 2.0 is finally released; obviously wait to unpublish the article until the actual date for update is set.

So what's that mean? It means you'll lose your search engine ranking, any backlinks you may have formed, any aging the article has done - as most online writers will tell you, good articles age like wine, not milk.

So you'll have to start from scratch. So... does that article need to be continuously updated or can you abandon that article to leave it as it is and just make something new with the same information once 2.0 is released?

I have a few articles that list a variety of body piercing types, such as this article about curved barbell body piercing jewelry that I used to update everytime I added a new article about a specific body piercing type listed. Rather than losing all the aging it has done, as it was published almost a year ago, I'm just going to let it fall to the wayside. It will continue to bring in whatever it brings in and I'll make a new article to update if I feel I need it.

Larry Zafran's Earning Theory

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:47:00 +0000

I found this while digging through some of my old eHow notes. I must have saved it when Larry Zafran posted it because I hadn't yet been on eHow for six months and I wanted to give it a try. Even just looking at it brought a smile to my face and memories of good times; I hope some of the old eHowers who read will have the same fond memories I have of it. I don't think the thread about this exists on eHow anymore; it's hard to know since so much was lost when they changed the forums.

And thanks, Larry, for giving us so much fun.

Hi All. I'm hoping that some of you can humor me by participating in this experiment that I came up with. It's a formula, and I'd like to see how accurately it estimates your current monthly earnings. I'll make the math as simple as I can, and will provide examples. Note that this formula probably won't be very accurate for members who have been on the site for less than 6 months, and who have less than 100 articles.

1) Take the number of months since you wrote your first article, and divide it by 12. Call that number A. For example, if you've been active on the site for 4 months, do 4 divided by 12 to get 0.333. If you've been on the site for 15 months, do 15/12 to get 1.25.

2) Take the number of articles that you have, and divide it by 400. Call that number B. For example, if you have 225 articles, do 225 divided by 400 to get 0.563. If you have 475 articles, do 475 divided by 400 to get 1.188.

Note: The constant of 400 assumes that you work hard to produce quality articles and promote them, either on or outside of eHow. It also assumes that you are active on the forums, and as such get noticed by new or prospective members and other vistors to the site. It also assumes that you have considerably more articles and have been on the site for longer than the suggested minimum values given above. Depending on the extent to which all these factors apply, in this step you may need to use a constant closer to 1000 in place of 400.

3) Multiply A times B. For example, if A was 0.333 like above, and B was 0.563 like above, you would get 0.187. Call that number C. Don't worry about rounding issues in each case.

4) Multiply C times 1000, which is most easily done by moving the decimal point three spaces to the right. In this case you would get 187. I'm guessing that the answer you get is somewhat close to your current monthly income. There are logical explanations for why your earnings may be somewhat higher or lower than that number based on various factors that have nothing to do with ad clicks on your specific articles (which eHow claims is not the issue, and which I agree with).

Without revealing your actual income (unless you truly want to), please post how accurately this formula reflects your current monthly earnings. Some of the constants in the formula may need some tweaking depending on what people say, and of course it will always just be an experimental estimate and not apply to everyone the same.

For the record, now that I've been on eHow more than a year - granted, I don't have the required 100 articles and never will now - my earnings were off by about $180. I wish I was making that much more than I am. I actually wonder if I should stop counting the time I've been on eHow to consider the closing of the WCP. When I do that, it's far closer to accurate.

Go ahead and share what your stats look(ed) like if you want.

Misconception about Writing from Home

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 22:35:00 +0000

There aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything I’m assigned to do plus my work. There’s a big misconception that floats around people who work at home, especially as freelance writers. This misconception is that we sit at home all day doing nothing - or worse, that ‘writing isn’t hard, quit whining that you’re tired”. Of course, this comes from people who don’t understand what it is to try and keep up with 3 or more blogs, 2 or more article submission sites and not to mention how long it can take just to research the keywords you need and possibly researching the information you need to write about. And let’s not even think about the time taken to do advertising… why should we think about it when no one else seems to think we do it?

I have 8 blogs that need attended to daily or every other day. I have articles that are half finished that could bring in money if I ever found time to finish them. I have various sites I have to check to be sure all is well, nothing is deleted, nothing reverted to draft, no scathing letters from editors. I am attempting to write stories and even throwing around various ideas for a novel - because I actually need to feel like I‘m using that useless English degree I just got.

I can say that just the blogs alone probably takes 8 hours out of my day. Everything else on top of that takes more time and of course, there’s always overflow that gets thrown onto the next day and eventually the overflow just becomes too much to handle and nothing is really getting finished.

But the general consensus from all those I live with or near is that I don’t do anything all day; I guess they think I sit in my computer area eating bon bons and watching pornography. Everyday I get eyestrain and think how nice it would be to look away from the screen and maybe go lay down for a while. Maybe even read a book that’s not on an LCD screen. And the longer I think about that, the more tired my body becomes because research, research, research is taxing mentally if not physically.

Why do those who work in cubicles get to complain how tired they are after work, but those of us who have the luxury of doing a similar job from home are told to stop whining and do housework before, in the middle of or -rarely- after we’re done working?

My father - whom I’m living with for a few months until I collect enough money to get to Hawaii - comes home from work complaining he’s tired. He and I have worked the same amount of time. He tells me I could at least have dinner ready when he gets home, that I could at least clean the house while he’s at work, that I could have looked up this or that or the other for him online while he was gone.

Oh, I’m sorry. So I’m supposed to work 8 hours a day, exercise at least 1 hour a day, cook food that takes prep-time (I don’t even cook this for myself most days), clean the house and everything else so that you can come home from working 8 hours and sleep? How is this fair? Just because I don’t have to drive to my job does not mean I’m doing less than you.

So listen up people, freelance writers and other work from home types are probably doing just as much, if not more than you! Stop making jokes about our cushy jobs and how easy we have it.

More eHow Scams

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:35:00 +0000

eHow removed the ability to change titles on existing content. Not only did they basically ‘fire’ all their freelance writers and toss them into the wind with a minimum of notice, but they are now slowly removing the control we were supposed to be left with of the currently published articles.

After telling us for more than a month not to edit - it was only advice, not a command, but since the publishing tool was beyond broken and was locking articles in the abyss of who knows where, it was ‘strongly recommended’ and you didn’t have a choice in the matter if you wanted to keep the article - eHow has still not come in to tell us it is safe. I had one article that has earned nothing since being published - which is strange since an article with the same keyword is earning steadily every day - just pennies, literally, but still almost every day. I realized the problem might be the poorly thought out title. I interrupted the keyword with another word and decided to take my chances with the publishing tool - the only thing I had to lose was some bad ads since there was no money on the line yet.

Well much to my surprise, the article editor opened with no problem. I even switched to expanded mode without any trouble. I even saved and published it without a problem. The problem? We no longer have control over the titles of the articles we wrote for eHow. The titles are locked in and with no ability to write new content, that means you’re stuck with a crappy title if you wanted to fix it somehow. I’m sure this was done to spare them the trouble of ‘losing’ titles for Demand Studios since they hate duplicate titles - if the titles created are static then eHow always knows what exists.

Next thing you know, they’ll completely remove our ability to put links in the resources section, remove the ability to edit the Items Needed and then we just won’t be allowed to edit the article at all. Maybe even the option to delete will be taken off the table. Just wait, eHow is slowly taking away our power as freelance writers - the powers they promised us we would continue to have even after eHow closed its doors.

What happens after you die?

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:20:00 +0000

To your online content I mean. This isn’t some existentialist, religious or spiritual question. I know what can happen to some content. I have stored all my passwords for messenger, e-mail, Facebook, etc. in a safe place so that if I die it can all be accessed and updated/deleted, depending on what the site allows. And that’s all well and good for sites like that, where my existence was minimal at best - I don’t have a big online persona outside of writing content and most people forget I have Facebook or other things (I do too) - and I don’t earn money on them.

But what happens to your content on the sites you write for? What happens to the income generated on that content after your death?

You might be surprised to find out that with online writing, your content and earnings may transfer to the site you submitted to if you didn’t give a family, friend or other loved one the passwords for your accounts so they can go and deleted content. And on almost all sites - every site I’ve encountered so far - revenue share content will no longer earn for you or your family; the money on any content not deleted - or content unable to be deleted due to the rights it was sold with - will be kept by the company.

This is all new ground legally and though you can put your online resources into your will, no company online company really has to honor that, as it would require a great deal of things to be transferred including the copyright of the articles, the ownership of the account you wrote under - which is against the TOS of most sites anyway - and the changing of tax information which is usually stable and unchangeable for a writing site.

There’s been a push on eHow.com by members who want to have all these rules changed, who want to be able to transfer writes and earnings in the case of death. This was brought up many months ago but was virtually ignored save for a half-hearted “I’ll take this to legal” that was then never updated. The thread discussing it was then deleted. But the people will apparently not be silenced when it comes to ways to take care of family after death because it was brought up once again. We still have the “I’ll take this to legal” answer with no update, but at least we know it’s not forgotten.

Start fighting for your posthumous rights, freelance writers of the world! If you own your content and especially if you make revenue share profits you and your family deserve to be able to continue to earn on it!

eHow Breaking Contracts with Freelance Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Tue, 04 May 2010 00:36:00 +0000

I complained a couple weeks ago now, that I had still not received an official e-mail about any of the changes happening with the WCP on eHow - an e-mail I have still not received - and told the community managers that I believed until I received official notice that they had no way to create a new contract with me - after all, if I was not informed of the new TOU through the accepted means, ie. the e-mails and PMs everyone else received then I had not been official notified. I also pointed out that my 7 day publishing window should not begin until I received this notice, same as everyone else.

This is community manager, Rich's response:

In the meantime, you may keep publishing until you receive the official notification that states that your transition is complete and your 7-day window will start once you receive that email. Thank you for your cooperation. -Rich

I logged in Thursday to post an article only to discover my publishing ability was turned off. Mind you, I have still received no official news of the eHow WCP suspension from eHow, nor did I ever receive an e-mail or PM - which were repeatedly promised to me - giving me the dates of my 7 day window.

Basically, I was lied to. Rich's word on that forum acts as the word of eHow. By telling me I would be able to continue to publish until the e-mails were received as promised means a new contract was entered into. That it's in writing makes it even more solid. Now, if this had been inaccurate or if Rich didn't have the authority to make such a promise then I should have received an immediate response saying this was incorrect - along with the correct details. Instead, I'm now being ignored when I ask for information.

eHow never notified my of changing contracts, though apparently I will be agreeing to them if I continue to use the site, and I was not informed of anything about the DS and eHow merger in an official manner - and really, official is all that matters; that I heard from a friend who heard from a bird doesn't really cut it in court, eHow.

eHow, If You Didn't Want New Content...

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 01:35:00 +0000

When eHow began the merger with Demand Studios, they claimed that you had a 7 day window to keep publishing on eHow - April 13. This then changed to be a 7 day window from the time you received your login information from Demand Studios (and if you didn't get accepted or already wrote for DS you had until April 13).

My 7 day window is apparently still very wide open as I have received no e-mails at all from eHow about this merger.

What I have received is deletion e-mails from eHow. I've had articles deleted before - back when they first started making guidelines but didn't bother to tell the writers what the guidelines were, but I have not lost an article in many, many sweeps now, even when I did publish something new.

But suddenly, when I began publishing within the new time frame, my new articles are being deleted left and right despite following guidelines - I'm well aware that they follow guidelines as I'm one of the most anal people about the guidelines.

One was a recipe - A Wiccan Acne Recipe. I don't see how a recipe can be anything except a how to article; you do this, this and this and you get this. It was reportedly an 'opinion'. I'm not sure how a recipe can be an opinion.

The second was how to write a letter of complaint. I looked at a letter I had written, went paragraph by paragraph on what should be said and how it should be said. I even told how to mail it. It was "missing steps". Maybe I forgot to tell them to pick up a pencil and write on a piece of paper. Would hate you to try writing all that with your finger.

Another was a legal article - Creating a Perform or Quit Notice - done in the same vain as a few other legal articles I have written. It was said to be 'poorly written'. Knowing I don't write poorly and that I don't make many grammar and spelling mistakes I find that beyond impossible to believe.

eHow, if you didn't want new content, you could have just said so. You didn't have to make up weird excuses for deleting.

This also explains the perpetual stuck in draft/unavailable mode that everyone suffers as soon as they attempt to publish something on eHow right now. They're saying it's a 'publishing bug' but by now, we should all know 'publishing bug' is code for, "We'd rather you just went away, but we can't tell you that and save face, so we'll make up excuses for why there are 'problems'."

Planning eHow WCP Future

noreply@blogger.com (Tara Swadley) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:32:00 +0000

You may think eHow doesn't have a future for you because they are closing down the WCP forever. But you'd be wrong. Don't pack up your articles and take them to another playground just yet.

Old articles on eHow may continue to earn, but eHow won’t be accepting anymore user generated content. Everything will now have to go straight through Demand Studios. Don’t let yourself get caught up in the doldrums about the eHow and Demand Studios merger. If you were or weren’t accepted to Demand Studios, if you will or will not miss eHow itself, none of that matters. What you need to focus on right now is your own bottom line. Demand Media is doing it so why not you!?

First, you need to publish all you can right now. Don’t just pump out crap, but if you have half finished articles laying around now is the time to make the time. Finish those up. Set aside any other projects that are not absolutely vital and finish any half written how to articles or write up some that you have had in mind for a while and just never got around to. You have until April 13 to get in as much content as possible before eHow closes the publishing door forever.

But what about when that publishing door closes?

Edit, edit, edit.

I always wanted to go through my articles - and I did with a few - and fix up keywords, rewrite murky areas, etc. The ones that I did fix up saw improved earnings in just a month and most have become steady earners.

If you’re going to have all of a lifetime - or at least the lifetime of eHow - to edit articles then why not take advantage of it? Get the most out of what you already have published. Looking at first written articles is usually very helpful. This is content that many people used to cut their teeth; they didn’t know about SEO, about keywording, about backlinking, etc. Well now you do. Go put that information to good use.

What are you planning to do to get the most out of what’s left of eHow’s WCP?