Best topic areas at Suite101?

[A. J. Luxton]

So I've been on Suite for four and a half months, have written 15 articles, and... my pay is hanging around $6.50 right now. I know the site has long-term potential, but it's hard to keep myself interested in posting articles when I'm not sure what money is coming from which article.

I can piece together guesses to the effect that my education and food articles are more lucrative than the fiction writing and book review articles I've done, but that doesn't tell me which other categories I might want to branch out towards for the dollars.

I'd love to hear observations from others here about which topic categories tend to be the most consistent for clicks and pay at Suite.

[Norman D Gutter]

The last two days I had record page views--and earned $0.04 over two days. I write mainly in civil engineering, American history, and poetry.

Yes, it's difficult to stay motivated with that kind of revenue.

No one knows which topics seem to be best for revenue. It's whatever ones people read and then are motivated to click on ads. I have heard it suggested that electronic gadgets does well. I have heard others say that reviews (books, TV, movies) tend to generate good page views but probably not much revenue.

You pays your money and you takes your choice,
NDG

[blueobsidian]

I don't think that category matters as much as how you think about the article. Because Suite pays based on ad clicks, you have to think about what subjects your readers would be interested in clicking an ad about. I had one article in Reality TV that shot to the most popular list (and my revenue more was through the roof while it was there) because it was about a casting call and many of the links referenced casting for the show. I have a series of articles about how to choose different kitchen gadgets for your home. I suspect those do well, because the ads are always for sales on purchasing the items or specific brands I referenced.

When you sit down with a topic in mind to write, think about what would make a reader click an ad. If you can focus your article on something that you might buy or want more information on, it will improve your odds at getting a click.

Plus, check the CPC values on Google Keyword Tools (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal). While I don't entirely base my decisions on the numbers, it can be a helpful way to gauge the direction you are going (plus, it can be a good way to brainstorm related keywords).

[ishtar'sgate]

I'd love to hear observations from others here about which topic categories tend to be the most consistent for clicks and pay at Suite.
I can't help you with the pay because I have no idea which ads are being clicked through on my articles.
I do keep track of which articles generate immediate and sustained interest over weeks and months and those related to gardening seem to do the best. For example, yesterday I posted a gardening article. I usually edit it then let it go live then test the links and double check for any typos. By the time I'd done all that and reposted the revisions I already had a couple of visits and the visits climbed steadily all day. That tells me I used good keywords and the article was of interest to enough people to keep a constant stream of visitors dropping in. Whether that results in ad click throughs, I don't know.

[A. J. Luxton]

blueobsidian: Yeah, the hard part is not so much "what would my readers click on ads about?" but "what would advertisers put up ads about?" The brand idea sounds like a good plan -- I can try reviewing some branded items.

The book reviews I've done haven't turned up a darn thing, but I guess science and medicine essays that don't have to do with cool gadgets aren't such hot sellers. It doesn't help that most of the ads seem to be focused on the term "book" or on something totally random and unrelated to the article.

There are a couple of things that are hard to correlate from Google statistics, like how many people are searching a string vs. how many results already exist vs. what ad keywords are connected to it and how often people click them (for example, I could call an article "Weight Loss" all I liked, but it would be competing with thousands of pages for views...) so I'm really interested in hearing from more of you on the topic of which categories are more hit than miss!

[ishtar'sgate]

There are a couple of things that are hard to correlate from Google statistics, like how many people are searching a string vs. how many results already exist vs. what ad keywords are connected to it and how often people click them (for example, I could call an article "Weight Loss" all I liked, but it would be competing with thousands of pages for views...) so I'm really interested in hearing from more of you on the topic of which categories are more hit than miss!
Exactly. That's too general. You need a keyword phrase that makes it stand out - say 'weight loss after childbirth' or something like that.

[Uncarved]

business, finance, health, and some tech/gaming articles. These typically show a boost in my income when I post them.