Work for Suite101

I've been a contributing writer on Suite101 since October 16th, 2007. I was contacted towards the beginning of November, 2007 asking if I would like to become a feature writer, after having 13 articles published.

Page View Payments
Suite101 pays writers based on the number of page views each of their articles receives. Suite earns revenue through Google Adsense and shares a portion of that revenue with their writers. All accepted writers start out as a Contributing Writer. Contributing writers must write a minimum of 10 articles during every three month period in order to keep their accounts active.

You have the option to apply for a Feature Writer position in one of their open topics after you have written a minimum of 10 articles. Feature Writers earn an additional 20% page view bonus. Feature Writers must write a minimum of 1 article and 1 blog on their featured topic each week as well as adding and monitoring discussions and polls on their topic. Featured Writers can continue to write articles on other topics but most of their time should be spent on writing for and promoting their topic.

Positive Feedback
Suite is one of the few onlines sites that actually gives you feedback. During the first few weeks of writing for Suite I was contacted a number of times by the Associate Editor and Food & Drink Editor on how to improve my article keywords, article titles and properly format my articles according to Suite standards etc. After my 13th article was published I received a 3 page in-depth email from the Associate Editor saying that after implementing various suggestions as outlined in the email that I could apply to be a feature writer.

Feature Writer
The Associate Editor mentioned that Suite101 was revamping some of their topics and said that they would be adding a Herbs & Spices topic to the Food & Drink section (I mostly write about herbs). But the editor also said she would consider me for Organic Gardening or Vegetable Gardening, both of which were open topics under the Home & Garden section. On November 28th I made my formal request to be promoted to the Herbs & Spices Feature Writer and the very next day I received an email approving my application.

Of the articles I had published prior to becoming a feature writer they were in all different categories. But many of them were cooking related so the Food & Drink editor emailed to say she would support my feature writer application if I ever decided to apply for any of the open Food & Drink topics.

Although Suite101 doesn't offer upfront payments for articles I am getting much higher page views over there than on any of my other online sites. And I'm hoping being able to add Suite101 Herbs & Spices Feature Writer to my resume will help me land future writing gigs with other sites/publications.

I'm not making tons of money yet but my PV's keep increasing. I posted up my 100th article on April 20, 2009. Feature writer's receive an additional 10% bonus after they reach 100 articles. So now I'm getting a 30% bonus on top of my regular share of ad revenue.

When I first started writing for Suite101, I was only making a dollar or two per month. Now I am making between $50 and $75 per month. I will continue to make money with Suite101 even if I don't publish any additional articles on the site. But the more articles you publish, the higher your page views and the higher your revenue.

Promoting Your Articles
In order to receive a high number of page views and thus earn more money you must spend quite a bit of time linking your articles to other sites and adding keywords for maximum SEO (search engine optimization). Being fairly new to online writing this took a bit of time for me to learn. But now adding appropriate keywords and linking my articles to various social bookmarking sites is pretty easy.

I mostly use Facebook and Twitter to promote my Suite101 articles. I also post a link to my articles on my personal blog: lynnsmythe.blogspot.com.

For additional information on writing for Suite101 visit their Writer’s Guidelines page. Suite101 currently receives between 8 and 12 million unique visitors every month.

Take care,
Lynn Smythe AKA the Writing Diva