Yahoo! Voices Changes in Publication

Late last year Yahoo! Voices (formerly Yahoo! Contributor Network, YCN), changed their publication process.

Their old policy of allowing writers to post directly any item which received display only payments ceased.

Now material which is to be published on Yahoo! Voices must be submitted for approval.

This is ok if it improves the standard of writing, any material published in a magazine or book in the world normally has to be submitted for editorial review.

The problem is now there is no way to comment on matters as they happen. I do not know how many reviewers Yahoo! has but it isn't enough. Prior to the change items submitted for upfront payments took about thirteen days to process.  I have now had work submitted for sixteen days and counting.

By the time one researches a posting and writes and submits it,the news is old and it is only fit for history books. Now we are lagging way behind with little sign of things getting any better.The only way to beat this new system is to write about subjects other than the news. So with Valentine's Day coming up my Assignment desk is full of write something about Valentine's Day. I would be willing to bet money though, that writing such a piece would not make any money until 2013, because it won't be posted until past February 14th.

For me it would be nice if Yahoo! created a special contribution arena for news stories and once again allowed items to be placed in on a display only payment scheme. That way the public become the ultimate editorial group. If they don't like what we write, they won't read what we produce.

Upfront Cash or CPM Payments? What is right for you?

When writing on Yahoo! Contributor Network you have the choice of whether to submit items for upfront payment or to opt for Performance payment only.

What you choose is very important and affects how you will be paid.

With the cash upfront payment, you submit items for editorial consideration, this is then either accepted and a cash offer made or rejected for several reasons.
Yahoo! will turn down your work for several reasons, especially if the work is time sensitive such as news or sport based. Editorial consideration can take two or three weeks so you need to consider if you really need the two or three dollars quite so soon.

If you do want to sell your work outright, it appears, in my experience, that items sold for cash then never receive any performance payments. You only get the sun that was offered in the first place.

From my calculations performance payments or CPM (cost per thousand) in the first few months on Yahoo! Contributor Network receive a payment of about 1 cent per 5 or 6 views. so it can take a while for your cash to build if this is your main means of income from writing on the site. They pay out when your performance views reach about 1,500 views. ($1.50) In the early stages you get less cash per view than later as you get closer to 1,500 your payments are supposed to increase.

Taking cash if you can in the early stages seems to make sense if you can, but if you want to use those items to increase your CPM payments then maybe if they are good subjects that you are certain will bring in readers over time you may be better off foregoing the upfront payment and the editorial delays and opting for performance payments only. This means your work if you publish immediately for performance payment is available to readers for anything up to four weeks sooner than it would be if submitted for editorial review.

If it is a popular item you could have 2-300 views in that time if the item is well publicized.

That way as time passes your work will continue to contribute to your income for the longer term.

As you write more items your required number of CPM views actually falls, so one item requires 1,500 views to pay out. 100 items only require 15 views per item on aveage to reach the payout level.

Believe you me, the level of 15 page views per day is very achievable above the 50 items posted level.

This is something well worthwhile in considering as you look into making cash from your writing.

How the Cash Grows

Of the online publishing sites which I have joined this year: Yahoo Contributor Network; List My 5 and Squidoo. There is a noticable disaster.

Squidoo has not lived up to it's expectations. I have had constant trouble logging in. For some reason my password keeps getting corrupted. I am unable to use all the functions when I do log in. It is just too complicated to get a lens (post) up that I lose patience and there is no real incentive to work through, the community there seem self interested and unwilling to help out. So Squidoo is not a place I like to go.

The other two publishing sites are very good for me.

List My 5 produces a good stream of views, now coming up to 10,000 in six months. I also now have a little income stream coming in from them. My lists are maturing and people are now clicking through on my links.

Prior to the Removal of my Amazon Affilliate status along with all the other California Affilliates my Amazon aStores were doing well with click throughs on List My 5, better than on my blogs or HubPages. I was really hit badly in that area with the closing of my account. But as I say I am seeing increased traffic through pay per click revenue at this time.

Yahoo Contributor network is doing very well. I have a couple of articles under review before posting. These can take a couple of weeks to be processed and one was time sensitive. It is on preparing for school and so evergreen but has missed the boat this year, hopefully it will bring some revenue over the rest of the school year, as there are ongoing improvement tips. But we have to wait for Yahoo! to publish it.

The network is also producing good viewing figures, I have risen in the contributor rankings which will pay me a higher rate per view, if current view rates are maintained by the end of the year.

Most of my articles I post directly. Waiting for review can be frustrating as I mentioned. I am now aiming to have 100 items posted on both List My 5 and YCN by the end of the year. That will triple my number of items and will need to be in addition to all my blog and HubPages work.

For YAHOO! Contributor Network articles   CLICK HERE!

For List My 5 articles     CLICK HERE!

What a Wonderful Day!

There is little doubt when a day like today happens it is wonderful.

As a writer somedays can be tough. Days when doing anything is better than sitting in front of a keyboard and staring at a blank screen with an equally blank mind. Those days are HELL!

Today I woke about 6am, a warm and sunny morning here in the Central Valley of California. The crickets were still chirping their last from the night and the birds were fluttering in the fronds of the palm tree outside my window.

I got up and showered while the coffee brewed. Then came to my computer and logged on to the web.

Late last night I posted my first hub for several weeks. I had seen my hubscore fall from 96 to 86 in the last three weeks.

I knew the answer was to write something but had no firm convictions so I posted answers and comments and watched my hubscore flutter downwards. Ideas in my mind would not become concrete enough to actually do any work on them.

It was a lazy time and I just allowed myself to drift.

Last night energized with one of my hub ideas, I sat down to type and publish. This morning my hubscore had jumped back to 91. First positive. I then wrote to my Cafepress blog to expand on an idea. Then went to Yahoo to write a short piece for them that had been circulating in my mind. That is now waiting to be scrutinized for upfront payment, and I have been back and too to HubPages to post answers and comments. All this while sipping my coffee from my Barcelona Starbucks mug.

There is actually a story behind that particular mug, maybe that could be used in a hub, or maybe just posted as a topic of conversation somewhere.

Anyway today things are good. I think that I have done some good work, I feel happy that things are moving around my brain again. Having been log jammed for a few weeks. It is a really good day.

And the coffee is great too!

Writer's Block

You know those days?

You sit by the computer, you go to the grocery store, to the post office, the library. You come back and stare and stare at the computer again. There is nothing. You don't have a single idea.

You long to post a new hub, a lens, a post to Yahoo Contributor Network. You sit until sweat pours from your brain and drips onto those still fingers placed upon your keyboard.

You know this is terminal. A terminal case of writer's block.

The more you try to think, the more coffee you drink, the more the cursor winks. 

Ah! The muse has struck.  :)