I’ve recently received a ton of traffic and emails about the post I wrote almost a year ago “Can You Make Money Writing For Examiner.com?” now that Examiner has undergone some changes. Everyone wants to know – What does the local Examiner writing bonus mean? What happened with Google news and Examiner? Is writing for Examiner still “worth it”? So then, let’s talk about the latest and greatest with Examiner.
What is Examiner.com Paying Per Page View Now?
When I did the math on my last month’s revenue the pay-per-thousand pay rate was $9.11. It’s still just over double what I make at Suite101.com per thousand page views, although my base revenue there is more than my base payments at Examiner. Of course, I’ve been writing with Suite101 for over three years so there’s the time and volume issue to consider. I still maintain that the key to making a good revenue at Examiner will be to choose a higher search volume topic – traditionally topics like finance which have higher pay-per-click with Google adsense also have lower page views and more competition and will probably not perform as well on Examiner. On the other hand, topics like recipes and sports which draw lots of page views, are topics which do poorly in traditional revenue share models so may be topics to consider for Examiner.
What did the Recent Local-Writing Pay Structure Change?
Honestly? Not much. Local Examiners now receive a $1 bonus for writing local-focused pieces. This is in addition to the regular pay! After a conversation with Examiner personnel via telephone I can assure you that Examiner is not going to delete posts that are NOT locally-slanted; those pieces just won’t be eligible for the extra $1 bonus. The reason Examiner specifically mentioned they have the ability to delete inappropriate content is because too many Examiners were posting articles completely off-topic, such as a Beauty Examiner posting about a sports team or some such thing.
Is Writing for Examiner.com Worth it?
I cannot answer that for you. I do know that with the new minimum requirements of one post per month it is EASY to contribute there. My articles are picked up by Google fairly quickly. I am able to drive traffic to other sites I write for or resources my readers would enjoy. And it’s definitely platform building. When I call someone and introduce myself as the Oklahoma City Alternative Medicine Examiner, they tend to take that pretty seriously. 
Which is nice. Am I getting rich? Nope. But it did pay for my plane ticket to #Blissdom (the blogging conference I’m speaking at next week).
Will it be worth it FOR YOU? I have no way to know that. There are pros and cons, to be sure. There are benefits that can come and I know many who are doing well there with their writing. I can’t guarantee you will be one of them but it might be worth a shot for the minimal investment it takes to contribute. If you do decide to give Examiner a try, let them know [2287] Oklahoma Alternative Medicine Examiner sent you. (affiliate link)
I think that whether or not Examiner is worth it for an individual has everything to do with topic and nothing to do with the new bonus pay. The bonus pay is not enough to make up for poor PV topics. For example, I have TWO examiner topics I write for. I haven’t made payout for the past 5 months. I am lucky to make 3 dollars in an entire month because I make maybe 10 pageviews a day per topic?
Now, that might change for the better now that Examiner is back in google news, but I’m not going to hold my breathe.
I keep my position open there with the minimum required articles because I do get a small handful (maybe 5?) of clicks when I post a story leading to my own website for more info, and with the use of google analytics, I know that some of my revenue comes from those visitors.
Jennifer – I agree with you one hundred percent…topic is EVERYTHING with Examiner. I’ve said that from the very beginning. I too find that the promotion from the site is wonderful and feel it’s worth the very minimal investment required to keep my account active there.
I make more from affiliate links and traffic back to my other sites than I do from page views – but that amount is fairly significant for me and worth the effort.
Angela <><
Thanks to both you and Jennifer for the info. I mulled over the idea of applying for an Examiner position for a couple of months and finally took the plunge a couple of days ago. The anticipation of waiting for the acceptance or rejection email is killing me!
Hi Angela,
I recently found your blog and appreciate all the information you provide.
While trying to determine whether Examiner is worthwhile, I came across another blog that was critical of Examiner’s earning potential. This blogger’s concern was that Examiner posts aren’t indexed on Google…not sure if that’s true…and unless you are steadily posting to the site, your revenues will drop off.
Based on your experience, have you noticed that your PVs and revenues drop off between article postings?
Thanks again for all the info on your site!
Maryalene
Thanks for the excellent post! Makes me more confident about the site. :tweeted:
Thanks so much for both of your posts re Examiner.com – very, very helpful and informative. I admit, I was initially confused when I signed on as I thought Examiner.com was the online extension of the San Francisco Examiner – not the case. Nonetheless, as a new writer to the online scene I value the exposure that I’m getting and whatever money I make will just put cheese on my burger … even if I still have to buy the burger! Yes pennies per view is apt description but at least the content is my own and I have the flexibility to write about a topic I’m enthusiastic about. Once fame & fortune come-a-knocking I can think about how to better leverage my efforts but until then, I’m enjoying the opportunity.
I myself stopped writing because I do not feel it is worth it. I do not want discounts and a change to win $100. I want a revenue share of the millions they are raking in.
Thank you so much for your post! I have been accepted for a writing position at Examiner.com and have been a bit confused about it, and your post cleared up a whole lot I was wondering about. Thanks again!
Thanks for you informative post. I too have just accepted a writing position with Examiner and this post did shed light on some of the questions i had about income. I definitely don’t expect to get rich doing Examiner but I get ZERO dollars for the 38 posts I have on my blog now. The point of the blog was to drive traffic to my site by showing knowledge on the subject I’m writing on. It looks like being an Examiner writer will work for that and at least generate some income for that effort.
Angela,
I read your earlier post and assorted comments for a couple of hours today! I really appreciate the openness about compensation, time spent, etc. I have been in the National Writers Union for years until recently, and they emphasize that being open about payments and contracts is the only thing to save freelancers from poverty and slavery.
Will probably be an Examiner in the near future. I have a question about affiliate links, that you’ve mentioned several times. What are they?! I have adsense on 4 blogs, and a little amazon, but I have no idea what you mean. Is there an example on one of your Examiner posts?
The main way to make money is by getting people to advertise on the site. In other words, you provide their content for free (and 1/2 cent per page view is virtually free). And you sell their advertising. For selling advertising, you get a ONE-TIME payment of $50, no matter how much the advertiser spends or for how long. Really, they are tricking you into selling advertising for their site. And the requirement that you link to other articles on the site is obviously to increase their advertising revenues and search engine rankings. And, if you don’t publish regularly, they can stop sending you payments–even as they keep making money off of it.
Consider what you will earn if you get ONE Million page hits at a 1/2 cent per page. That is 500,000 cents or five thousand dollars. And a local examiner is almost guaranteed NOT to get 1,000,000 page hits. It just doesn’t happen. And to keep getting this five thousand dollars, you have to keep posting and posting and posting….
I have made just about $760 in February and $750 in January. I write 6 to 7 articles daily and am in the top ten in my political category every day. The catch is that although my writing is local, I’ve been lucky enough to hit “national” topics in the past two months. We’ll see if that carries on for March. However, also note I am unemployed and Examiner even says themselves that it’s not possible to make a full-time gig out of the site. Still, we’ll see if it grows for me. I began making $3 a day with 3 articles a day. Develop a following, promote yourself and you’ll do fine. It also depends on your subject matter.
Examiner.com has emailed me letting me know that they’d like me to be the So Cal Pets Examiner.
However, after reading the minute amount of money paid for writing articles; it’s realy made me stop and think before signing on with them. At this point I don’t have clue…
So far I am enjoying Examiner although I wish the mechanism for posting was a bit faster. When you go to post it takes too long to work through all the steps to post. I am trying to find ways to build up traffic although this is still a work in progress. Overall, however, I am enjoying it.
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Very informative post! All I know is that with the recent hit that Suite101 took in Google rankings, they don’t even begin to compare to Examiner. Sadly, it only made business sense for me to stop writing about Suite101 altogether. At least for the time being.
I still made over $1,000 writing for Examiner.com in December 2011, considering the over $658 I made from pageviews for my four columns — plus the CJ.com referral monies made via the products I wrote about for my Internet Deals column, plus how much more I’ll get for Examiner.com referrals.
So it depends on how hard people are willing to work and the favor on their writing to determine whether they feel Examiner is a viable option for them.
I always like looking at what works and actually makes money and is productive and fun and vital to perform, and going from their to scale up.
Your tips about high CPC subjects and low traffic are spot-on. Sometimes topics with high cost-per-click do not attract enough traffic to make them profitable, whereas popular subject matter has the attraction factor and, over all, earnings are usually higher over the lifetime of the article.
Additionally your specific tips on the topics that might do well at Examiner.com are well taken.
When writing for any revenue-sharing site, it pays (literally) to study and develop a feel for which articles do best at which sites. An article that may sit and do very little at one sight, might generate higher revenues at another. Sites that allow for removal of articles offer flexibility to writers so that they can place them elsewhere, where they may potentially do better.
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I have been reading this interesting debate, and wanted to ask some advice to a novice at writing. I was always a good writer in school, and was told to and willing to go to college to better my skills. Life leads you down strange paths, and somehow I wound up falling in love with the restaurant industry, as well as my wife. Now, many years later (too many to mention), I find myself missing the thrill of creation on paper (or web), and have begun writing several short fictional stories. I feel my skills have eroded tremendously, but practice is (hopefully) all I need. I also recently stumbled across Examiner.com, and signed up to write local pieces regarding nutrition and cooking basics. I’m not looking to make a ton of money, rather to hone my skills and see if I can actually do this. What advice would you give? And how important is social media outlets like facebook and twitter, which I have never used? Is this writing forum useless without them?Any help would be great!
Thank you,
Peter
I just wanted to add that my friend says they are only paying around $2 / 1,000 PV’s now. That’s a long drop from the $10 they started out with. With their sketchy terms that give them unlimited rights to everything you write, I don’t think it’s worth it anymore. They still have all my posts up, but you can’t find them unless you specifically search for them with my name.