Is it a good idea to go into revenue sharing with a professional publishing site? For some writers, revenue sharing can be a good opportunity. It can also be a total waste of time. If you are just starting out with writing and publishing online, there are points to be made for such an option. Once you feel comfortable with handing over your articles into the public domain, you will have to give it more thought and maybe reconsider.
What is revenue sharing? When you post an article on a publishing site then the company running the site has ads displayed on your article. The publishing company is paid based on the number of times people view their content including your article; you and other writers in turn are paid a portion of the ad revenue generated by that view; this is called revenue sharing. The publishers share their revenue with you. The more readers hit on your articles, the more money you get paid.
Revenue sharing sites are based on the principle of good article writing. If you are starting out, such a site is a good place to get your first articles out into the open. Not only don't you have to worry about your own blog, about promoting it, and about getting some feedback, it also gives you other writers reading your articles and giving their comments. That helps you to work on article content (if nobody is interested, then you should look for something else to write about), on style (if everybody hates your style, then think about changing it), and on promoting your writing.
Revenue sharing sites are great to get your feet on the ground. They allow first time writers to publish their articles even if they are not perfect. Reading other writers articles, you will find a lot of information on what works, and what doesn't. And the writers work as sort of a writing family; everybody chats and leaves comments or answers questions. It's a great way to do an apprenticeship. And the nice thing about the (good) sites is the fact that they continue to pay for your articles for as long as you leave them published there.
Revenue sharing has it's draw-backs. You only get part of the income (go for the 50/50 sites) which already is only part of what the advertiser pays for his ad as Google Adsense (or whoever) obviously keep part of the revenue, too. Revenue sharing is a bad deal if you get only a penny per view; don't go in, or get out as fast as you can. If you are prepared to put in the work to promote yourself, and once you know what you are doing, then your own blog might be a better idea to publish your new articles on.
Don't delete your account with the publishing site once you stop using it, your old articles will still get a few views and get you some money. And sometimes an article just has to be written and doesn't really fit in with your blog or blogs; then you can push it on the publishing site and get money for it there and maybe a few back-links into the bargain.
I started out with writing for a site called Triond which now is defunct. That happens as the publishers might find new things to do, or when technology gets ahead of them. It is one of the reasons you should keep all your articles safe on your computer. You can now reuse them as they were and they'll count as originals, not repeats, when search engines hit on them.
No comments:
Post a Comment