What is the hot website, channel or subject

One of the things that I see a lot of writers do, especially those who are in the paid by the pageview category is that they keep searching for the hottest (best paying) websites, channels and subjects.

Now there is nothing wrong with this...unless it becomes your entire drive. If it becomes your entire focus, you are going to end up with very little results after doing a lot of work.

All writers are concerned about who is paying for what material, and how much is getting paid. It is just a part of the profession. But there are some writers, beginners mostly, who will not write something unless it is earmarked for a high paying market.

Now I do understand the logic, or illogic, behind this habit. If you are going to write for money, aim for the top. There are many that believe that all they need is a lucky break, or the right choice of subjects to go from loser to king of the writing world.

Unfortunately, every other writer is also looking for these subjects and markets too. This brings us to an unfortunate economic reality. If word gets out that a subject, or a website, is a good paying subject, all of a sudden everyone is writing about it. And all the resulting articles flood the market, dividing the pie in ever smaller pieces, and the payment rates drop like a rock.

This is one of the reasons that working writers are occasionally tight lipped about their best paying work.

Another problem with this method of choosing your subject matter is that today's hot subjects are chosen at whim. And the whim and interest of the public change rapidly. What is a hot subject today often becomes tomorrow's cold dead corpse. The writers who benefit the most from the changing whims and interests of the public are those who got there first. By the time, most writers learn something is hot, it is already on its way to the not-so-hot list.

It is for this reason that I suggest people ignore what the best paying subjects are. I think that writers should start off in a couple of areas that they know really well (or want to know really well), and build up a set of articles in those areas. After building up a nice block of articles in their field of expertise, then move on to another subject and repeat.

Your goal is to be able to switch gears if you need to (sites come and go as do interest in various subjects); it is also to have a variety of articles online, so that market whims do not wipe out your investment of time and energy when people get bored and move on to the next hot craze or concern.

And have no doubt, writing is an investment. Picking the hot subjects of tomorrow is like picking stocks, it is better to know what you are investing in than to follow the blind wanderings of the herd.

Leapfrogging on Helium

One of the quirks of Helium, one of several online paid to write sites that I belong to, is the ability to “leapfrog” one of your own articles. Leapfrogging involves replacing an article that you are unhappy and not earning anything from, with an article that is you believe is better. Leapfrogging is a necessary option given the Helium system.

Helium, named for the concept that the better articles in a title will rise to the top, uses a rating system. It is an old fashioned system in the sense that it uses writers to rate the work of other writers. It is a new fashioned system is the fact that the ratings are ran though an algorithm to figure out exactly where your article should end up in the stack. Thanks to the combination of fashions, one’s article can sink in the ratings like a stone, or rise very rapidly to the top.

The rating system is one of the most hated things about Helium. Given the fact that many writers don’t really understand how the system works, and that it is based on other writers’ opinion of the merits of one’s work, conspiracy theories arise about it.

Quite honestly, given the randomness of the selections that are presented to rate, I doubt that anyone is gaming the system. I will admit that it sometimes moves very slowly, especially when it comes to contest entries; but given enough time, at least for myself, my articles end up exactly where they are supposed to be. Others may disagree with me on this; after all, we all think that we are the best writers in the world, therefore rightfully deserving the number one slot.

Besides egos, there is also the small fact that Helium pays writers using a revenue sharing system. (Other revenue sharing sites include MyLot, Yuwie, Associated Content.) In the interest of attracting users, and keeping them, some web sites are beginning to share some of the ad revenue that they collect with the people using the site and providing useful content. On Helium and Associated Content, that content is articles.

Many people prefer Associated Content over Helium, due to the fact that Associated Content does not rate articles in the same manner that Helium does. On AC, each article is rated only against itself, and it has no bearing on your revenue share (AC calls it “Performance Bonus). Your rating on Helium does affect your earnings; even if only because the top five articles in a title get seen more than the others in the title.

So in light of this, writers on Helium are allowed to attempt to replace an article with another version; hopefully, one that does better in the ratings. It does not always work, causing many experienced Helium writers to wait until their work hit rock bottom before they attempt to write a better version.

This year, during my winter break from college, some of the writing that I am doing is revisions of my bottom dwellers. Not all of them. Quite frankly, some of my lowest rated articles are there simply because I don’t care enough that they are sitting on the bottom (if I think the shelf-life of an article is over, there is no point in wasting time rewriting it).

And besides, some of these articles are no longer current with my skill as a writer. Thanks to college, a couple of novel rough drafts, and just sheer experience as a writer, many of the articles I wrote there when I first joined are articles I now am horrified to have written.

Say what you will about Helium; but at least they allow you to replace your trash with something more readable. I know that many people prefer Associated Content, due to the lack of a rating stack; but considering that an article there is forever and non-replaceable, perhaps Helium is the better vehicle for your writing if you are getting better as a writer.

Pursuing the happy buck--focusing on the best approach

Today, I was reading a lot of complaints about Yuwie. And a few people hyping it. (This was occuring on MyLot.) All this got me to thinking.

The ones who are in favor of Yuwie are those who are good at getting referrals (they know that they are good at it), while those who are not good at "networking" are looking at the payout and saying that it is a rip-off.

Now, I can see both points of view. After all, I am of two minds about everything. It comes with the blood--bad upbringing and all--mom was the type of person that the only way to accomplish anything without her messing things up was to make it look like you were up to something completely different.

I also have some economics classes and ten years of restaurant management under my belt, besides having been trained to take over dad's business when he retired (things went bad, hence my working for myself). So it is easy for me to see both sides.

I can see, based on my own numbers that I will need about a million payviews to hit the fifty dollar payout on Yuwie. So a little over 208 years at my current pace.

On the other hand, the site doesn't have as many members as MySpace--though based on my stats there and on nettribe, I doubt that I would ever succeed just on page count.

There is also the fact that if one can get enourgh active referrals that a lot of the earnings would come from another source.

Unfortunately, I am not very good at getting referrals or being a salesman. For me, Yuwie will probably never earn me a payout.

But there is that whole social networking thing--just like MySpace--as a writer a good networking site is worth something to me. So I will probably stick around Yuwie and do the occasional blog about stuff, including the rare link to one of my current bits of writing.

Which brings me to my point--yes, I had a point in mind--people should stick to what they are good at when focusing on the happy buck ("the happy buck" was something an afro-haired painter used to describe the paintings that people would actually buy). For those who are good at getting referrals, they should stick at that. Those of us who have other skills, like myself, should stick to those things that we do best.

And we really should let say "live and let live." Each to their own. No forcing one another to adapt to the other's approach fo making money.

So in my case, I should stick to the paid to write sites--Helium mainly for me (my luck with Associated Content is not the best) and other types of freelance writing. Now, there will be some that say that I will always struggle for money if I take that route.

That idea is ignoring one of the truths about being a writer. Half a writer's income should be coming from royalities--ask the professionals and they will tell you that your upfront for the year should match the amount of royalities (residuals) that you made. Half of my time is spent on making money upfront, the other half is spent building up my stock of royality based material. It is just another form of doubling your money, through not from interest or referrals.

In fact, those of us who are good at producing good content need those who are going to build up membership in sites such as Yuwie and Helium. On my own, I will never generate a million hits without an audience. But with some people driving people to the site, I might. Ok, it is a real long shot, but hey it could happen.

So my basic opinion is that each of us should focus on our strengths when it comes to trying to make a buck. That is my opinion, and I am sticking to it.





My Helium Page.