Suite 101

[Twocoolboys]

Here is the official Suite 101 thread.

For those of you that don't know, Suite 101 is a writing site, similar to AC. However, Suite does not pay upfront for articles. They pay a percentage of Google ad click throughs. They pay once a month, through Paypal, as long as you have reached the minimum payment amount of $10.00.

Suite obtains exclusive electronic article usage rights for one year. After one year, the article will remain on their site, you will continue to earn revenue from it, but you can also sell it (non-exclusively) elsewhere. You can also sell the article to a print magazine at any time.

Suite has stricter writer's guidelines than AC. They do not like the first person point of view and insist that all articles be written in the third person. They want all articles to be between 400 and 600 words. Their guidelines are on their site - Suite101.com.

They have an application process which requires you to submit your resume and writing samples.

They have daily page view updates, unlike AC. Suite allows you to change the paremeters of your search, so you can get your total page views for three months, your page views for one day, for one week, or whatever you like. They tell you what google searches people did to find your article (great tool to help you hone in on key words for future articles!).

OK - That is the extent of my knowledge! I'm learning as I go.

Just a reminder to keep this thread promotion free. Since we get paid at Suite, we can't publish our article links or our profile pages here. But, as with the AC thread, we can PM them, upon request.

Happy writing!

[ErikaLeigh]

Can you send me a sign up link in pm?

[Twocoolboys]

If anyone writes for Suite, please pm me your profile link so I can check out your articles!

I've got 11 articles up at Suite right now and my goal is to do at least 2 a week. I just applied to be a feature writer. I'm not sure when I'll hear about that.

[Twocoolboys]

Erika - Just go to www.suite101.com. At the top of the page, click on the link that says "hiring freelance writers". They don't do referrals.

[ErikaLeigh]

You have to submit a resume????

[Twocoolboys]

Originally Posted by ErikaLeigh

You have to submit a resume????

Yes and two writing samples that fit their guidelines. The application is pretty intense, actually. I had to write two articles for AC that fit the Suite guidelines, then once they were published, I submitted them as my samples. It took me a couple of weeks to get the whole thing together. Both in waiting for my articles to get published at AC and in updating my resume (which hadn't been updated in about 8 years!).

ETA - I believe this has changed somewhat since I applied to Suite. Writing samples currently do not need to be previously pusblished.

[mamadaan]

What do you write about?

Hi,

I wondered what you wrote about on suite101? I have looked at it, but have not made up my mind whether I want to do it.

[Twocoolboys]

You can write on a variety of topics. Surf around their site to see what's there. I've published articles on external hard drives, homework help, growing sunflowers, cold sores, plant hardiness zones and family finances.

[moonfirefaery]

Do you have to promote at Suite 101 too?

And if so, those of you who do AC and Suite 101, how do you find time to promote for both?

[Twocoolboys]

Yes, you do have to promote at Suite too. I don't write nearly as much as you do, so I can keep on top of it pretty easily. I also don't promote everything, though I should.

ETA - I have since formed the opinion that promoting is not that helpful and I don't do any. I think some of the other writers still do, though. Most views come from Google searches.

[ErikaLeigh]

I haven't completely made up my mind, but I think I like AC better.

[queenbean]

I guess I'm wondering if those pageviews will keep rolling in at a steady rate, or if they will drop off after a while the way the ones at AC seem to do. (Yes, even my evergreen ones slow down after a bit.) If they keep gathering views over the life of the article, and you keep getting paid at that high rate (it's a really good rate for PVs), then that would be a pretty good deal. But if they drop off after a month or two, and if you have say 600 PVs for one article, and you're earing $4 per 1000 views, then you're just barely making 3 bucks on it. And I know that for some articles, that's all you get at AC too, but at least there you have a shot at making more. I'm pretty fed up with AC, but I'm not sure that Suite is going to be worth it for me.

I would like to hear updates on your progress, TwoCoolBoys, or hear from anyone else who has written there, to see if my assumptions are wrong. Because I do want to write somewhere else, I just don't know if Suite is going to be the right place for me.

[Twocoolboys]

I will definitely let you know of my progress at Suite.

I have thought of all those things too, Queenbean. But, don't forget that Suite pays a percentage of Google ad click throughs. So, for that same article with 600 page views, you could have another 1 or 2 dollars in click throughs.

At Suite, once you become a feature writer or you reach 100 articles on Suite overall, you get a bonus on ad click-through payments, which translates to a greater percentage.

I think Suite is more of a long-term thing, whereas AC is more short-term. AC has the potential to be long-term too, but you will definitely make less at only $1.50 per 1,000 pv's. Of course, if you are still getting good offers at AC, then it is harder to justify going to Suite. But, I am consistenly not getting good offers. If I'm going to make 3 to 4 dollars an article, then I'd rather make it at Suite where I feel more appreciated.

The bonus is that if you do write an article that does really well, the ad revenues at Suite will kick butt over AC's payments.

Suite has the side benefit of only buying exclusive electronic rights for a year. After that, you are welcome to resell the article. You can also sell reprints at anytime to a print magazine. AC buys exclusive rights forever, so unless you submit non-exclusive, once you publish, it's no longer yours.

I am definitely curious to see how I will do overall at both places. Once I've been at each for a year and have 100 articles up on each site, I can't wait to be able to compare! Fun! I love stuff like that - lol.

[Twocoolboys]

Ugh - I've got a Suite update for whoever is interested. I misunderstood their payment system when I first signed up. They ONLY pay the revenue share from Google ad click throughs. They don't pay per page view at all. I thought they did both. So, now I feel like a fool and I am very dissappointed in their system.

I just got my first payment of $11.48 for the month of August and the couple of months before. But, most of it is from August, since I didn't have much up until late July, early August. I still think it has the potential to be decent, but I will need a big archive of articles before it gets decent. It's definitely a long term thing.

ETA - Just want to clarify that, almost a year after I wrote this orginal post, I have found that my revenues are decent. It is a long-term thing, but I am quite happy with it.

[queenbean]

Thanks for the update. My stuff would definitely be out then, because I've noticed that my interests don't often coincide with those of the average consumer. I'm not a techie, and I'm just not all that interested in most of the things that are frequently advertised.

[Twocoolboys]

Another update - Suite gives detailed feedback after the first 3 months. I finally got my feedback this weekend in the form of a 3 page e-mail.

I think I FINALLY understand key wording. The editor explained it all for me. Sometimes I was doing it right just by chance. But, sometimes I was completely missing the mark. So this will help me in writing for them and for AC.

Cute titles or titles that only hint at what the article is about are no good. The search engine "spiders" go through articles and pick up on keywords based on what people search on. So my article called Hope for Cold Sore Sufferers missed the point a little. I thought I was ok with that one because I had the words "cold sore" in there. But, as she pointed out, no one is going to use the words "hope" and "sufferers" to search for info on cold sores. Those words are vague and mean nothing in regards to my article. She changed it to Cold Sore Treatment and Prevention which are terms that are searchable.

Luckily, on Suite, I can go back in and edit my articles. I think there is a time limit, so I need to do that soon. I've already done some of them. I only have 12 articles up, so it shouldn't be a problem.

I do still like Suite and still intend to write for them. I made almost $10 again this month, so I feel pretty confident that once I get more articles up, I will make more money there. If nothing else, I LOVE the feedback.

[rainbowmoon]

I just signed up yesterday. I figured the experience will be good for me! 10 articles in 3 months should be do-able.

(I also joined Helium and ehow.com too)

[ErikaLeigh]

[evies_mom]

When I first joined, I found a page that had which topics were open and didn't have a feature writer. I can not find that page for the life of me. Anyone have a link to it?

I hope to start submitting this week, once the holiday is done.

PM me links.

[MyTwoAs]

I submitted my application yesterday and just heard back that I've been accepted as a writer.

I also write part-time for a friend's blog and he has explained SEO concepts to me so I'm hoping to fine-tune what I've learned on Suite and get some page hits in.