Making the Decision

After the Panda algorithm change I spent a lot of time rebuilding my own residual income. I didn’t write for Suite because they were hit hard and financially it didn’t make sense to place more articles there. I had to spend my time placing articles where I could get the most bang for my buck.

In the meanwhile, I kept my eye on Suite and the changes that were occurring. There were a few things that I observed that helped me to decide to return to Suite:

1. Suite’s management is doing everything in their power to restore Suite 101 to its prior standings.
2. They showed that they value their writers by changing the bonus system, the minimum article writing requirement and the minimum payout threshold. Each of these changes makes writing for Suite a bit more attractive.
3. Most importantly, the earnings drop seems to have bottomed out and earnings seem to be picking up again.

Those three observations plus my long history in writing for the site were enough to help me make the decision to return as a Feature Writer.

During My Hiatus

During my hiatus from the site my articles earned a few hundred dollars. The last time I wrote an article for Suite was May 2011. Between May and October my articles continued to earn. Overall, my lifetime per article rate with Suite 101 is a little over $56 an article (I’ve been with them for 4 ½ years). That’s not a stellar per article rate, but not bad for online writing.

Because I like calculating my earnings based on the current year (can’t pay the mortgage on last year’s earnings), my current per article rate for 2011 is a little over $155 per article. No matter which way you slice it, I have little to lose and much to gain by returning to Suite.

My Freelance Writing Arsenal

My arsenal has reduced in size when it comes to online writing sites. Adding Suite back to my arsenal makes it the only non-owned content site I write for. At $155 per article, I’m willing to make the sacrifice.

Everyone’s experience at Suite is a bit different. On occasion I get the question, “Is writing for Suite 101 worth it?” I have a history with Suite and it’s definitely worth it for me. Is it worth it for a newbie? I still think it is. As I’ve mentioned before, the editorial feedback from Suite’s editors helped improve my online writing style. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be where I am today. That kind of feedback is invaluable.

UPDATE 10/18/2011:   After writing this post, Google released another iteration of its Panda algorithm.  Suite 101 came out on the bad side of this algorithm.  As a result, earnings have plummeted. Yesterday my earnings were $0.28.  You might want to wait until the dust settles before joining Suite.

Suite 101

I’ve been both a contributing writer and a feature writer for Suite 101. I recently re-claimed my Insurance Feature Writer spot only to realize that I’m totally burnt out on the subject of insurance so I decided to vacate the position again. I’ve been browsing their available FW positions to see if there are any that I would enjoy.

Feature Writer vs. Contributing Writer Earnings

All Suite writers took a large hit as a result of Google’s Panda algorithm update. I’m down to a fraction of my former earnings. At my current earning rate it really doesn’t make much of a difference if I’m a contributing or feature writer. As an FW I earned a 30% bonus, but 30% of not much doesn’t give you much.

When I compare my month to date earnings from June (no FW bonus) to the same period of time in May (including FW bonus) my June earnings are lower by $3.48. Not enough of a difference to really matter.

Change in Strategy

Previously, I wrote for Suite primarily for the residual earning potential. I wrote articles in hopes of earning  steady residual income. However, with the recent decrease I’ve changed my strategy and adjusted my writing frequency accordingly. In 2010 my Suite per article rate was $84.30 (income divided by number of articles). Currently, in 2011 it’s hovering around the $100 mark ($104.03).

Because I want my per article rate to increase each year, I’ve slowed down my writing production to maintain the higher rate. In other words, instead of writing a ton of articles in hopes of earning a lot of money, my philosophy is (as Rod Tidwell instructs in Jerry Maguire), “Show me the money!” When the income justifies writing another article and my rate doesn’t dip below $90, then I’ll write. Oddly enough, writing one article a month seems to be the magic number at the moment.

Keep Building My Own

I learned a lot about writing online through Suite 101. They were my first online gig after writing off-line for years. Their editors introduced me to keywords, key phrases and how to get traffic to my articles. If it weren’t for Suite it would have taken me a lot longer to understand the dynamics of on line writing.

That knowledge gained at Suite has helped me to build my own sites. If I continue to write one article a month for Suite, I have a lot of spare time to concentrate on my own stuff.

I have no ill feelings towards Suite 101. Don’t get me wrong; when earnings first began to decline, I was a bit miffed. No, I was more than miffed; I was down right upset that my earnings were declining without much word from the folks at the top. Now that I know what’s going on, I can make informed decisions and I’ve decided to continue writing for Suite 101.

Why did I do it?

Easy, the drop in writing requirement. When Suite dropped the required writing from one article a week to one a month, I realized it was something I could do. My earnings at Suite have tanked but my 2011 per article rate is currently holding at $96.99.

Worst Case Scenario: If I don’t earn another dime from now to the end of the year and write the minimum of 1 article a month, that would mean my per article rate drops to $56.10. Since I believe that my articles will continue to earn (granted not at the rate they earned previously), I think the one article a month is worth it.

Let’s face it; I’d have to write 3 DMS articles at the $18.50 rate to almost earn what one of my worst case scenario Suite article earns.

Guess it’s time to dust off my list of insurance titles and write a couple of them.

If I can manage to convert it into a more user-friendly format, I’ll share it.  But right now, it’s too convoluted to share.  In the meanwhile, I’ll share some of my discoveries.

Work Smart, Not Hard

Part of the reason I keep such meticulous records is that I’m always looking to work smarter, not harder.

Check out these numbers and tell me what you think.  I’m listing my first year’s earnings and article count for 4 sites that are currently in my freelance writing arsenal. At first glance, of these 4 sites, which gives the best return on my writing time?

If you look at it on a per/article earnings basis, you would probably go with site number 3, right?

Letting the Cat out of the Bag

These numbers represent my first year earnings for eHow, Suite and two of my own sites.  I started writing for Suite in 2007, eHow in 2008, site #3 in 2009 and site #4 in 2010.  Although I started writing for each site at different times, the first year’s numbers are pretty revealing.

My second year’s earnings prove to be even more interesting. I can only compare 3 of the sites because site # 4 hasn’t been around long enough, but here’s the slice:

As I look at it again, site #3 is the clear winner to me. If everything were equal, I would earn more working on site #3 than 1 or 2.

Just for grins, I averaged the 1^st and 2^nd year for the sites and came up with the following:

Working Smarter

I will continue to write for Suite 101 and add a few more revenue share articles for DMS, but my numbers tell me to spend more time developing site # 3 and site # 4.  When you look at the above numbers, keep in mind that sites #3 and #4 get a fraction of the traffic that my Suite and eHow articles do.

Site # 4 received 1,300 hits last year and site # 3 received 46,000 hits.  Back in its heyday, I used to get more hits than that in one month with my Suite 101 articles.  Now I’m averaging in the low 40,000s per month (and dropping) with my Suite articles.  I don’t check eHow’s page views, but I believe I get more hits on eHow than I do on Suite.

Going for the Gold

Can you imagine the kind of financial return I would reap if I worked on creating more content and building traffic for sites #3 and #4?

How did I select the blog topics for sites #3 and 4?  By looking though my eHow and Suite articles to see which ones received the most traffic and highest earnings. They’re subjects that I enjoy writing about so it’s easy for me to come up with content.

There are all kinds of formulas out there for creating lucrative blogs.  I’ve found trial and error works best for me.  I write about topics that I like; sometimes they’re financial winners and sometimes they’re not.  Those topics that don’t do well as a stand alone blog/site get incorporated into my Tidbits and Stuff site.  Tidbits & Stuff is my online recycle bin. With online writing nothing ever goes to waste.

Lesson Learned

Every once in a while you’ve got to slice and dice your statistics to allow them to help you determine which way to go.

The Good

My Suite 101 numbers are slightly higher this month than last month. They went up by a whopping $27.15.  I would be excited with the small increase if it weren’t for the fact that I earned $87.68  more in November 2009 than I did in November 2010 (and I’ve written 62 more articles).

If you have read any of my recent posts about Suite 101 here at NJFM, you know that my numbers have been rapidly declining.  If it continues, I’ll soon have to pay Suite 101 for the honor of writing there.

The Bad

My eHow numbers tanked in November.  They dropped by $303. However, when I compare my November eHow numbers to last year this time, I really can’t complain, they’re $451.99 higher than they were last year.

The Ugly

Well, there’s really no ugly.  Everything else pretty much held steady for the month of November.  When I do an overall comparison from November 2009 to November 2010, I see that I earned $314 more this November than last, so I shouldn’t complain too much.

Also, it appears that my numbers tanked last November too.  Fortunately, there’s something I can do about my situation. Now that I know my current writing portfolio tanks in November, I can write a few seasonal articles so I won’t face the same residual downturn.

By writing a few seasonal articles and following Ken’s internet marketing advice, I think next year will prove to be a lot different than this year.

You gotta love this online earning stuff.  You really do have much more control over your income than you think.