Tip for Freelance Writers
By byfaithonly
@byfaithonly (10698)
United States
June 14, 2009 8:58am CST
As some of you know I write for both Associated Content and Helium (I am doing much better earnings wise at AC). Well, last week as you may also know I decided to start a new section of my personal web site about gardens and gardening. As with both AC and Helium I retain the rights I posted my garden articles on my web site.
Most of us know that these two sites earn from the ads that are generated on our content, articles we publish on their sites. They are depending on searches from the search engines finding our articles and their ads.
I post a 'hit counter' on most of my key pages which allows me to see where my visitors are coming from. Friday night I checked the counter on my 1 week old Garden site and guess what - I'm getting hits from the search engines already. Now interestingly when I checked the search an article that I posted on AC and Helium did not pull. My new site did - for the same article...
Ok here's my tip "If you want to write to be found on the search engines don't depend on AC or Helium to be found."
If a lowly old lady can get found maybe AC and Helium need to revamp their system. What do you think?
8 people like this
10 responses
@cbjones (1147)
• United States
14 Jun 09
I was thinking about making a blog or website dedicated to some of my articles on AC. I've noticed an uptick in page views lately, which is very encouraging. It makes me think that maybe I'm doing something right, and that this whole keyword density thing isn't a farse after all.
Thing is, I don't know if focusing on one subject or posting all of my AC articles on a site would be the best way to go. I'm thinking a niche audience wouldn't care about a smorgasbord of information, and would rather see exactly what they searched for instead of extra content.
4 people like this
@mommaj (23112)
• United States
14 Jun 09
HAHA. You're funny. Doubt if you're lowly or old. AC was having problems indexing, but I am happy to see most of the articles are able to be found. As for your article not showing up from either site, I have a feeling maybe it was a newly written article? If not it might have been because others have recently written garden articles that were more popular on the sites, or even older??? Did any articles pop up from AC and Helium on gardening?
3 people like this
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
14 Jun 09
I actually did an 'exact word' search on yahoo and all 3 articles showed so know search engine is indexing them it's just obvious to me at least that the engines aren't giving them as much priority. Makes me feel good to see my article (page) pull #1 spot on yahoo though after only a week. Sure the others are there but buried who knows how many pages deep.
2 people like this
@mommaj (23112)
• United States
14 Jun 09
LOL. That's great your website is showing up with your article. Congrats! Most people have such a hard time getting traffic. You should write a how-to article about getting traffic. Actually, you have haven't you. I hope your articles are doing well on AC.
3 people like this
@parthasarathi (446)
• India
14 Jun 09
I think what AC or similar site does is, earn big bucks by letting you earn. Now, they have 1000s of writes there, they shuffle them alot. so, your desired search may not come up. The search engines pick up personal or public sites first, not business sites like AC first. Its just what i think. I am not sure how far it can be true.
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
14 Jun 09
I don't so much think that the engines give priority to personal sites over business sites I think it may however have to do with these sites like AC and Helium the search engines know what they are doing, even myLot does it, collecting content to pull in searches. I'll continue to take my few dollars here and there from these sites but will certainly be spending more time publishing on my own site.
2 people like this
@mjsdls (1840)
• United States
14 Jun 09
Thanks Faith, Good idea. I'm do much better in my writing and the Masters Course I'm taking. I signed up for a mentor named Joshua Boswell and he is great! He does that Monday Morning Jumpstart program. I have gotten more done this week since listening to him than I have in one year.
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
14 Jun 09
Oh that's wonderful I have a mentor also - friend here on mylot, has helped to get me motivated and given me direction where I can go with my writing.
2 people like this
@snowy22315 (180452)
• United States
14 Jun 09
Thank You for your tip faith. It sounds like you have the system figured out pretty well. I personally, have given up on AC and Helium as a source of income. I think there are better sites out there that are not so heavily utilized. You may want to investigate textbroker. They pay decently. Another site that is worth checking out is Constant Content.
3 people like this
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
14 Jun 09
I actually think I have a membership at Constant Content but have never done anything with it. I've never heard of textbroker but will certainly check it out - I need to make as much money as I can with limited time to write, thanks for your tip.
I am pretty 'expert' on the search engines and content writing - published 5 e-books as a ghostwriter on internet marketing :) did a ton of research and testing for those jobs.
2 people like this
@ahmeertahmad (46)
• United States
14 Jun 09
I'm extremely interested in joining AC as a writer. I'm glad to hear that you've had a positive experience with them. However, I thought once you sold them your article you can't use them anywhere else? Thank you very much for the advice about doing the search engine business yourself. I don't know if they should revamp their system but it just sounds like they don't do everything for you, which isn't a bad thing.
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
14 Jun 09
It's true you can publish to AC 'exclusive' that means they retain all rights. I don't do that - you can also publish giving them the rights as well as their 'customers' to use your work but you retain the copy rights. You can also publish for display only but I never do that. I have several where I didn't submit for upfront pay but I still get traffic credits and have rights. If you are interested in AC there is a link at the bottom of my profile page where you can join - would love to welcome you aboard and help all I can.
2 people like this
@Randync (544)
• United States
15 Jun 09
AC is still the best content site out there in my opinion. The indexing issues are bringing them down though. I am going to be on a panel of writers who will be working with AC on some issues and giving them feedback. Right now indexing is my main beef because it costs us money.
@chenxiaoyue_713 (2165)
• China
15 Jun 09
Thanks for your tips. I have to admit that I'm attracted by your discussion just because I thought you'll introduce some good tips for freelance writers. But the fact is you only point out that it's impossible to have your articles found on AC or Helium. I'm not a memeber of both these sites, so maybe what you said is right. Anyway, don't take this the wrong way, I'm just a little confused.
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
16 Jun 09
I'm sorry your confused but many many freelance writers write for such places as AC, Helium, Textbroker, and others. The point of this discussion is if we writers want to have our work read we may want to to re-consider where we share our articles.
@vijayanths (7877)
• India
14 Jun 09
You are absolutely right byfaithonly. Sometimes I wonder how these reputed sites perform so low in the webworld. My wishes for you.
2 people like this
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
14 Jun 09
One thing I think that accounts for it is the search engines know what they are doing, paying a few bucks for content. The big thing I think though is the wide wide variety of topics. It's taken me years but I have a 'reputation' my family friendly, christian based site doesn't have a lot of 'return links' but the majority of them are from similar sites - search engines love that. Also I have my site set up so such as this my 'garden' section links directly from my main domain page - spiders don't have to dig deep to find my pages.
2 people like this
@vijayanths (7877)
• India
15 Jun 09
You sound very meaningful. It is not easy to get organic traffic to your site. I think you are reasonably successful in it, hats off to you.
@sunny69316 (638)
• China
15 Jun 09
Hi,
That is great tip!I want to know where your site is,I am a designer for garden products!
Thanks!
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
16 Jun 09
Oh glad you found it - colorful, that's the idea, I love colorful gardens and next to writing love taking pictures of flowers, gardens, and nature so all the photos are my own also.
