Suite101 Changes Guidelines: How Does This Impact Writers?
Posted by AccentuateAug 23
If you haven’t seen it, check out the new post about guidelines on Suite101. You can find the new Suite101 guidelines by clicking here.
The one that stands out the most to me and will likely get more writing overall for Suite101 is lifting the minimum article requirement. Previously, Suite101 required writers to submit at least 10 articles per 90 days, which was an average of about three (3) articles per month, give or take, in order to stay active. Suite101 has now lifted that requirement, so writers, as long as they meet all other guidelines, will stay active even if they have to take a break.
Another things that changed is the ‘voice’ of the articles are no longer required to be in third person. Previously, Suite101 required only third person articles with no opinion interjected. They would, in the case of how-to articles, sometimes allow second person, if it wasn’t in your face type of second person, but they never allowed first person. Now, they are allowing both first and second person, though they state they still prefer third person for most of their articles. Second person can now be fully used for how-to writing and opinion pieces just might get accepted when written in first person, as long as they meet all the other guidelines. This is an interesting step.
Lastly, they have widened the article length requirements. I have before, being the queen of verbosity, submitted a well-written, fantastic article to Suite101 only to have their article template reject the article without any chance to appeal to a human editor. Suite101 has now increased the high-end length to 1000 words. They still prefer, from what I gather, for articles to be about 500-600 words, but they are allowing shorter and longer articles in some instances. At the very least, the computerized template would reject it out of hand.
There are other changes, but these are the best ones at this point. To see the rest, click the link up above and go read for yourself.
If you were hesitant to write for Suite101 for the reasons above, then perhaps it’s time to apply for a writing position with them. I’m thinking their featured writers’ minimum requirements are still intact (I’m not and currently don’t want to be an FW with them, so I’m not sure.)
The only thing I don’t understand is why they didn’t send this one out to all the writers in an email. I only found it by accident when I logged into Suite101 and happened to see it there on the My Suite page.
If you want to check out my content on Suite101, you can do so here on my profile or my articles list. If you have any questions, head to the Suite101 forum where they are discussing these changes.
Keep writing!
Love and stuff,
Michy
I’ve stayed away from Suite 101, Helium, HubPages, Squidoo, and the like because I’ve been assuming that someone would have to write their ass off in order to make even a reasonable part-time wage. Am I completely off-base?
Beth
With Helium, I have a little over 150 articles and I earn about 40 bucks every month, on average. It’s really hard to make any decent money on Helium, but they are slowly improving. I haven’t given up on them yet, because I’ve spoken with their CEO on the phone about four times, and I really believe in this guy and his vision. Slow and steady might end up winning the content race. They aren’t there yet.
With Suite101, I have 54 articles and I earn about 50 bucks every month, on average. My average on Suite101 has been about a buck per article per month. So if it held to those averages, and I had as many articles on Suite as I had on AC, I’ve been bringing in over 400 bucks per month. With AC, I only bring in about 150-200 bucks per month on the residuals. So my conclusion is, if you put the time into Suite101, it will reward you.
The problem is, you really, really have to know SEO and how to write SEOed organically without sounding stuffy and make those articles an ‘answer’ to a problem someone has that the ads around it look like a solution to that same problem. If they don’t click, you don’t make money. So people who have done high-traffic articles that on AC would make money regardless, they have found on Suite101 that those same articles get tons of views but make no money (Like the game articles that get traffic, but people don’t click).
So if you know how to write the SEO stuff properly and make your articles a solution to a problem that the ads around it can solve, you can make good money on Suite. It’s not for everyone.
Interesting. Thanks for the insight, Michy.
I have written a bunch of articles for howtodothings.com, but haven’t contributed anything there is quite a while. When they started up, they paid in gift cards (I know, weird, right?) which was kinda cool because my earnings from there never felt like real money for bills, but instead play dollars that I could fritter away at restaurants and stores. They also bought the rights to the pieces outright, so while a short article would earn a $25 gift certificate, it was all that you could ever earn with it.
After they were better established, they switched to an AdSense click-sharing system. Writers who were with them before the switch were asked to sign new agreements and every article written post-change has been paid out on the new system. I stayed with it for a while, then got really bust with a growing client list and rarely went back. For a while, Google was sending me a check for about $100-130 every few months, solely from clicks on my HTDT pieces. Even now, my “How to Cut Your Own Hair” piece remains on their home page, one of their most popular articles ever. It’s always been at the #1 or #2 position, and the thing has got to be close to three years old.
I got really “busy,” not really “bust.” :O)~
And here I thought you meant “Busty”! LOL
I’ve actually never heard of them, so they are one more to add to my list of places to check out and recommend to writers. Thanks for the insight!
Do you blog any sponsored posts? Blogsvertise or blogitive, for example? I did a ton of those in the past, too. Quick, easy money. Staring out, they usually offer only $4-5 bucks per post, but once you do them for a bit, you get offers for $15-20, even $25 posts, and they take literally 10 minutes to do. You take two or three minutes to look over the sponsor’s website and then write a quick three or four paragraphs that include usually three links to the sponsor’s page. Easy breezy lemon squeezy.
Zero creative outlet, but those twenty dollar bills add up help to buy time to work n the creative stuff. :O)
Thanks for the news and great insight. I’m still pondering whether or not to write for Suite101 but I think I will give them a try soon (maybe even try out the English and the German site).
Love,
Saoirse
How to Do Things pulled a Mahalo and decided to stop paying people. They didn’t tell people about it, though, they simply stopped paying. I was able to get them to take my content off so that I could resell some of it, but it turned out that they had sold a few of my pieces elsewhere and I can’t resell them because they are now under other names. Stay far, far away from How to DoThings- from what I’ve heard they aren’t telling new writers that they no longer pay a rev share. They are as shady as it gets- even Mahalo has more class than they do. I seriously considered bringing a class action suit against How to Do Things and still haven;t decided against it.