Hey everyone, I know you are busy writing but take a few minutes out of your schedule to take a gander at the streamlined approach to making a success out of writing for Yahoo Voices! This is one of the best sites for a new writer to learn the ropes of SEO and how to use it to make some really decent money. It’s important to remember that this is a site where patience is a virtue. You aren’t going to make a living off of it this week. But you can make some pocket money! Over the long term, you can earn quite a bit here and it’s a great site to have earning you a residual income.
Now if you have been here for a while then you know I have reviewed Yahoo Voices before. So getting an account and all of that good stuff is covered there. I’ve also covered the importance of using SEO and how to use SEO effectively on Yahoo Voices. So check out that article as well. Pay particular attention to the SEO information. I cannot stress this enough about online writing: SEO will make you or break you. You simply have to learn to do it well. There is no way around it so you might as well learn it now.
Unlike the majority or online writing sites, there is more than one way to get paid on Yahoo Voices and it will streamline the success process to detail the most effective way to make the most money in each of those formats. All payments are through PayPal at this time though there are rumors of other methods being explored.
Submit content for upfront payment consideration
This is the most time consuming because it takes a bit of time for the staff to read and offer you an upfront payment. If you are offered $15 you should accept it because that is great for this site. They have a tremendous volume of content and they rarely pay for it in this manner. Don’t be surprised if they offer far less or decline to take it for upfront payment. This is not a reflection of your writing ability in any way. If it’s rejected for upfront payment you should allow it to publish for residual or performance payments. I’ll explain this later but it’s worth it in the long run, especially if you are just starting out.
You best chances for upfront payment is within the trending topic arena. Check on Google, Facebook or pay attention to Twitter for the latest in topics. It needs to still be trending when you submit the article.
Become a beat writer
Some people become a Beat writer because they happened to write several articles on a trending topic that caught the eye of the editor for that beat. Some contacted the Beat editor directly. What a Beat writer gets is a broad topic. Under that topic you can write up to 5 short articles per week for $10 to $25 an article. That’s not a lot on the face of it but it adds up over time. I’ll get to that in a minute.
The only real restriction, other than the broad topic, is word count. They want a minimum of 400 words and a maximum of 700. The topics are very broad. For example, Finance or Gardening. Anything that falls under the topic heading is allowed.
The Assignment Desk
Once you have written a few articles, you will periodically start to see assignments come up on your Dashboard. This is one of the reasons that it’s important to fill out your profile completely. That and previous articles often dictate which assignments are targeted to you. For example, the recent weather issues would be sent out to those in the areas impacted for a first person viewpoint. There are various rates for these and they can run as high as $100 or as low as nothing.
The more you write, the more assignments will be targeted to you. Try and stick with writing about things you like because otherwise your assignment desk could end up flooded with things you hate.
Submit for residual payment only
Residual payments mean that for as long as the site exists you will get paid for the content you have written for it. I mean this in an extremely literal sense. Years ago, a site named Associated content made this promise to the writers who worked there. When they sold the site to Yahoo and it became Yahoo Voices!, that agreement was honored. I’m still getting residual payments for content I wrote back in 2005 for Associated Content. Several articles that I put there just for fun have netted me over $2000 each in residual payments.
All content you publish in Yahoo Voices is eligible for residual payments. Upfront content, Assignments, Beat articles are all eligible. This is one of the reasons that so many people use this site as a place to put rejected articles from other sites.
There is a graduated scale here. You start at $1.50 per 1000 views and eventually earn up to $2.00 per 1000 views. The more people who view your content, the higher your Yahoo clout score will be. That is how the pay per view rate works. Your overall clout rating will accumulate month after month. It doesn’t start over each month. Your pay for all of the combined views of your articles is paid each month and then starts over.
Your best shot here is again trending topics. This will get you a big punch of views quickly. Interesting thing about this is that once people have read one of your articles they often read a few more. This is how you end up getting paid for an article you wrote years ago and forgot about!
The Academy
The Academy is somewhat new but it’s a great idea. The courses are all free and for a new writer this is a perk worth joining the site for all by itself. There is a wide variety of courses and once you pass them you get a nice badge for your site and it lets the staff know who to target for the really great assignments. This has essentially replaced the old Featured Contributor program.
SEO –SEO-SEO
This is online content writing at the most basic and pure level. You want to use great SEO practices so you can attract more visitors to your writing. Not only do you build a brand and audience but you also get residual pay.
You can learn this through the Yahoo Voices Academy or you can even get a copy of the Yahoo Style Guide. I highly recommend this particular Style Guide if you are going to be doing a lot of online writing. It is specifically designed for online writers and details how to implement seamless SEO.
Put it all together
You have your account and you are exploring the Academy and taking the courses.
Accept any assignments that you can quickly and easily write off the top of your head. Pay attention to SEO and submit the article.
Create some of your own content. Go to Google or just look at the sidebar on your Facebook page for the latest trending topics. Write it and submit. It’s faster and easier to bypass the upfront payment and go straight to the residual pay. The article will be accepted and go live much faster. Time is of the essence in online writing and trending topics and the goal is to try and get them as they start trending so you have the article published and accessible during the peak of the trend.
Once you have completed The Academy Courses you will get the badge and your assignment desk should start to fill with better offers and offers that are targeted to your skills and your interests. You may also be tapped for beat assignments if you have a tendency to write in a specific interest area often.
That’s it! That’s all there is to being a success at Yahoo Voices!
Yahoo Voices!, unlike many sites, requires time and patience. It’s a great site to get your feet wet in the online writing world and to get used to things like SEO writing and content production. You can even use your work on Yahoo Voices! as samples for other writing gigs. As you delve into the various online writing sites you will come into contact with a great many people who got their online writing start at Yahoo Voices or the previous incarnation of the site, Associated Content. In fact, you may still see the Associated Content stickers and banners on many websites or see references to AC. Happy writing!