The WMF Archives: Writing for The Examiner: Why I Stopped, Started and Stopped Again.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Writing for The Examiner: Why I Stopped, Started and Stopped Again.

6:00 AM

By Pam Houghton

Last October, I started writing for the Examiner. After years of working and balancing home and family before a corporate lay-off, I figured I could share my experience as the Detroit Working Moms Examiner to help other harried, frazzled working moms maintain their sanity.

I could pretty much write whatever I wanted, as long as each article included 200 - 500 words. Mostly in third person, with references to my geographical location and a bit of SEO thrown in, two to three times a week.

I thought it would be fun, maybe a bit therapeutic, and I have to admit, I kinda' liked the instant gratification. You write, you publish, you're done! No testy editors or long, drawn-out waiting periods until you see your article in print. Or in this case, online.

Though I couldn't produce 2 - 3 articles a week, I did crank out 12 articles, all based on personal experience.

But after four months of writing, I couldn't think of anything else to say. To continue, I'd have to research, maybe interview a few folks - stuff that took time and was beginning to feel like work.

Which would have been fine, except I only got paid a penny per page view. Most articles I was lucky to get 100 views. Was $1.00 an article worth all that extra effort?

After mulling it over for a few milliseconds, I thought not. I let the column slip away to focus on other projects.

Six months went by. By then I figured I was done writing for pennies until a fellow Examiner informed me that she had acquired several high-paying freelance writing clients through her column.

Really?? People who needed writers contacted her? And peeps with deep pockets? My hopes lit up like sprinkle cupcakes. That could be me!

Call it coincidence, but I felt a couple more working mom topics welling up inside. Suddenly, I was churning out one after another. Or more accurately, one, then another. Then I stopped.

Did I exhaust my topics again? Or did I once again feel the futility of writing for, basically, free? I'm not sure. If the spirit moves, I'll write another column.

But if some fat cat client wants to hire me because of something I wrote for the Examiner? Let the big bucks roll in!

photo by arinas74/stock.xchng

Labels: content mills, Pam Houghton, the examiner, writing for free

18 comments:

Heather @ Domestic Disaster said...: I wrote for Examiner for a while in '09 as the Orlando Airlines Examiner and had a great time doing it. It allowed me to interview people that I wouldn't normally have any reason to reach out to and I could talk about angles of the airline biz that most airline bloggers and columnists weren't touching. I thought the editors there were great and I loved the helpful conference calls. I wanted to succeed so bad at Examiner but my niche just didn't generate enough traffic to make any money--especially when I was competing with the Orlando theme parks examiners. I ended up quitting the airline business as a career so my insider scoop dried up as well. That's when I called it quits with Examiner.

So anyway, that's my longwinded opinion of Examiner.; August 7, 2010 8:25 AM
Pam Houghton said...: Heather - thanks for sharing your story. You did a lot of work for your Examiner column! Seems like there could be a niche-specific airline magazine you could target with your background.; August 7, 2010 10:36 AM
EducatedRants said...: I literally just signed on with them - about 2 days ago I got a reply asking for my bio/pic. I haven't finalized the set-up yet because I was a little put off by the background check (I'm paranoid about "internet investigators") and I've also found the more I know about a site the better my flow is. Like, how seriously will I be taken amongst the other writers? (Helium, for example, left a bad taste in my mouth).; August 7, 2010 11:37 AM
Rebecca said...: I stopped writing for Examiner because I wanted to switch topics and they have a strict policy against it when you're new. I'm not sure if I'll write for them again, we'll see.; August 7, 2010 1:48 PM
Janet Clark said...: I wrote for them for quite a few months last year as the Des Moines Relationships Examiner. It allowed me to write about a field I've done a ton of research on, developing healthy relationships, so it was fun and not very hard. But I did get tired of earning such little pay, so I haven't written for them for a long time. Didn't formally quit, so my stuff is still up.; August 7, 2010 5:20 PM
Carol Tice said...: I think you can leave profiles on Guru.com and Elance and have good clients find you that way, without having to write a word, as opposed to spending umpteen hours writing for $1 an article for Examiner in hopes of scoring a client. Time's just too precious for that. It's great to be out there with a presence as many places as you can, but given Examiner's not-so-great reputation, it doesn't seem worth the effort.; August 8, 2010 1:12 PM
Pam Houghton said...: Carol - thanks for the link to your blog - that was a good article on scanning for leads. I too have had the experience of applying for a number of Craig's List jobs that seemed to lead nowhere. But on occasion, I've gotten response from what seem to be legitimate companies or publications. Too bad they're so few and far between! :-); August 8, 2010 5:31 PM
Petula said...: As a writer who used to solely write for magazines and has now transitioned to the virtual world exclusively I cringe at the little pennies that are being offered. I have one gig where I think the pay is too low, but it's consistently the same every week and other opportunities sometimes come from that. I continue to do my blog because I love it and it brings a little income, and I definitely stay away from the pay-per-click kind of stuff because I don't want to also have to market it to get the traffic to make the money. Does that make sense? LOL...; August 10, 2010 12:20 PM
Pam Houghton said...: Yes, it does!; August 10, 2010 1:09 PM
mkpelland said...: I wrote 100 excellent tech articles for my Examiner column in one month to kick-start, as a noob. Traffic was fine, but Examiner's COUNT of traffic was not. I made about $200 per month for views of 100 articles. Same happened on my other column for writers. I can do better shopping my work around, doing staff blogging, and writing columns for various web and print publications. If I blog 300 words for other clients, I get paid between $50 and $100. Do I need less than a penny a view? Nope.; August 10, 2010 3:40 PM
Brenda said...: Hi Pam,
Your post is very timely as I am currently on the fence re: whether to continue to write for the Examiner. The same effort v. payoff debate that you and others have mentioned. My initial interest was based on the desire to increase my online presence, but traffic has been a challenge and the low pay has been a de-motivator. I haven't given up altogether, though. Just not posting nearly as often as I thought I would.; August 10, 2010 6:43 PM
find freelancer said...: Who are all looking for part time and home based jobs, Visit the website: https://greatlance.com/.
In this website you can freelancing jobs as well as you can find number of freelancers for home based working.; August 11, 2010 12:22 PM
worddreams said...: Interesting article, Pam. I write for the Examiner and am constantly annoyed at them. I enjoy developing my column, but the website can't figure out how to track clicks per article and won't allow me to do it with statcounter or Google Analytics. It takes half the fun out of writing.

But, I admit, I love writing, so I'm still having a half-good time.; October 19, 2010 8:57 PM
Pam Houghton said...: Yeah, I don't regret writing for them at all. It wasn't like they cut my hands off or anything. :-) And I definitely got introduced to LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook in a more writerly way, that's for sure. Just gets discouraging when you think about the time you put into it...and there's no support, editorially or financially. But for some people, I understand it works.
Thanks for your comment!; October 20, 2010 6:26 AM
Sheila Siler said...: I started writing for Examiner in February and went pretty strong until May, then fell off. I just picked it back up - determined to make enough to at least get one check. Plus the discipline is good for me. I work two other part-time jobs and blog (which doesn't pay anything but I love it best), so this keeps me in the "I am a writer" mindset. Thanks for sharing your story.; October 21, 2010 7:04 AM
Pam Houghton said...: Hi Sheila - I can identify with your story, particularly the need to keep that "writer" mindset.

I'm glad I compiled a list of stories in the Examiner that I was later able to re-work and sell, so the discipline of writing for them for a while paid off. Perhaps you can do the same!

I did finally get that one paycheck from the Examiner...doubtful I will get another. :-)

Thanks for stopping by.; October 21, 2010 7:36 AM
Curt MacRae said...: Pam,

I have written for the Examiner for 20 months. My production was once 3-5 articles a week, on job searching topics, but lately it's been 1-2 per month. I had up to 18000 readers per month, but even that doesn't generte much cash, and now I have about a thousand reads per month. At my height of readership, I was consistently in the top five nationally in my category (and, I made $150/month on a good month). Now they've cut the pay and you make about 2/3 of a penny per read. OMG!!!

I did it because I love to write, even for almost free, and it was a good addition to my own job-searching story.

I just got offered a contract job to write for a large company e-portal, and it still won't pay much, but could be $8-10,000/year for 4-5 hours per week. I just need ten more of those jobs.

And, that should be even better experience to list.

Selling your talent in this arena creates problems similar to the people who do voice-over work. Everyone thinks their second cousin on their mother's side can record a message... or write. It aint so, but they don't know, because they can't write neither.

Curt MacRae
248.238.7214; November 12, 2010 2:42 PM
Pam Houghton said...: Hey Curt,

Thanks for stopping by. Congrats on the contract job - is that with company that rhymes with engage? :-) Not bad money for 4 - 5 hours a week, but you're right, you just need to get ten more.

Anyway...a lot of people appreciated your job examiner articles...so even if you didn't get paid but dimes and nickles, you did a lot of good.

Good luck!
Pam; November 12, 2010 3:09 PM