Is it worth it to write for Examiner anymore?

Google Panda put a huge dent into may of the content sites, and while many have reacted in a positive way by trying to up the quality of the writing on the site, I don't believe Examiner has done anything to combat Panda.

I'm still having a good experience at Examiner, but I've been there since 2008 and built up a core audience in the early days. I also love my topic and the perks it brings, so I think that helps a lot.

I've got four articles in with them--the oldest being 45 days old--newest one is 10 days old. I've made .27 cents.

I officially quit yesterday. It's a damn rook. So is Texbroker and Writer's access, which work on star systems. I've never received any substantial work with either of those and the titles make no frickin sense to me.

DMS auto went under, taking me with it. I'm pretty much done in content, and only have one slick magazine left who pays really well.

Thanks Google Panda, for nearly wiping out an entire industry.

tri

I stopped writing for Examiner when my monthly pay dropped below 50.00.

My pay declined, but it's still enough to put groceries on the table, and I just got back yesterday from a press trip to the Canadian Rockies, so it does still work for some. I think I'm really lucky to have the topic that I do, since it has a loyal audience in general. Examiner is also a good platform for my ebooks, so I assign it some value for that, too. Still, I think it's very, very, very hard for people joining now to build up that strong core.

triceretops said:

I officially quit yesterday. It's a damn rook. So is Texbroker and Writer's access, which work on star systems. I've never received any substantial work with either of those and the titles make no frickin sense to me.

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I made enough at textbroker to pay the bills between february and may this year. They bumped me up to level 5 after I'd been back for about a week, and man I don't envy anyone who is trying to make a living at 1.4c/word.

Level 5 articles have really dried up in the last month, though.

Writer's access always seemed like a joke to me. I know some people make good money there, but you can't actually get articles unless you get on "love lists" or whatever. When the owner of the site started making weird demands re: writer profiles, I opted to just close my account.

I do not write for sites that do not have enough work for writers. With text brokers, I started off as a 3-star and I'm still there. Every time I log in, they seem to have work for 5 star writers only. Just hate their system!

There are currently 200 level 3 orders available on textbroker. Level 4 has 700 open orders, and level 5 has 54.

I've been at Examiner since 2009. I added two more columns since then.

Ironically, I actually don't publish very much. I have one column that does pretty well that I try to publish at least once or twice a month, a second column I've pretty much given up on, and a brand new column that I only started to get access to certain types of events. (I'll be publishing more in that one as I attend the events).

The most I've ever published was 5 or 6 articles a month. I never was one of those Examiners who could churn out multiple stories a day.

The main column I write is the "Michigan Firearms Examiner" and I've figured out how to make it worth the effort for me. The first thing is I've learned to promote it to get enough hits to make enough money to keep up the effort. I post links on several gun boards where I've been a member and I get most of my hits from those sources. Google doesn't do much for me anymore since the last two updates.

To give you an idea of what I consider "good enough to stay" I have about 85 articles published, so there's not a huge back library bringing in hits.

I published one article in June and between it, and the small amount of hits from my archive, I made $78 in June.

I just published an article about a week ago and so far I'm up to $44 for the month. (Jumped from the $7 or so I'd earned from the archive before I published that article).

For me the only reason I get any readers is the promotion I do on those firearms forums. I do have a few subscribers, but most of my readers are first time visits. Looking at my GA stats I see exactly which forums bring in the most visitors and I make sure to promote there first each time I publish.

I also do get readers who repost links for me on other forums where I'm not a member. That helps a bit as well.

I also now try to spend more time writing articles based on my own knowledge base instead of traveling to cover local shooting events, political events, etc. I found it just wasn't worth the effort to travel, cover an event, and then write the article for typically less than $20. (Many of those were gun rights related political events and those articles never do as well as my more "how to" shooting tips articles).