It took me a while to decide on a replacement for eHow, since their change in platform left me with no place to publish my content aside from Suite 101 and HubPages. I needed a new outlet, preferably a site with not-too-strict guidelines, and so I decided on Infobarrel. After my brief experience with the site, I'm very happy with my decision. Infobarrel is a self-publishing site that allows you to earn residual income from your articles in a variety of ways including Google Adsense, Chitika and Amazon.
How Much Can I Earn From Infobarrel?
Aside from the ability to earn from multiple income streams, Infobarrel also shares an extremely generous share of the revenue your content generates. You'll earn 75 percent of Adsense revenue, and I'm sure former eHow writers will find the site's transparency quite refreshing. The actual amount you earn from Infobarrel, as with all revenue share, depends on numerous factors. You earn money every time someone clicks an ad placed next to your article, not by page views or popularity. In my experience, this will ultimately earn more money for you than any other payment model.
In addition to Google Adsense, you can also sign up for a Chitika and Amazon Associates account to earn even more revenue from your content. If you're going to write for Infobarrel anyway, I'd highly recommend taking part in these programs. All you have to do is sign up, type your information into your Infobarrel profile and you're done. The site handles all the rest and each of your articles will contain ad blocks for the various companies, which immediately go to work for you.
I submitted around 15 articles to Infobarrel last year, but never really went back and updated my profile. Once I decided to start making regular contributions, I thought I might as well add my Chitika ID and start earning extra cash. I'm already seeing daily Chitika earnings, small but steady, from those few articles and the several I've submitted this month. Imagine all the revenue I lost by not adding the ID months ago!
Not only have I earned almost daily from Adsense and Chitika, I've also made two sales on Amazon over the past few weeks since I updated my account with my Associates ID. Keep in mind that you'll need to choose a category and keywords on the article submission page if you want to display Amazon ads. In light of how well my now 26 articles have performed, I'm definitely going to be submitting many more to the site, and I'll keep my readers updated on my income over time.
Other Benefits of Writing For Infobarrel
Generous revenue share and numerous ways to earn are only the tip of the iceberg. Infobarrel has many more benefits that I'm sure other writers will appreciate, especially those of you who feel you were burned by eHow. First of all, the Infobarrel staff is upfront with the writers, letting them know exactly how much they'll earn, and if you have a concern, someone will actually answer you. Here are some of the other reasons I love the site so far:
- Freedom of Format - Although this is more for prior eHow writers, I still think it's a benefit. You won't be stuck with a single format. You can write any type of article you like, as long as it's at least 325 words in length. The site recommends a minimum of 400 words, however, to ensure your work is included in the index. There are several formats available, including how-to, but you can also start with a blank canvas and format your articles however you desire.
- Fantastic (Working) Publishing Tools - This is one of my favorite things about Infobarrel. Their publishing tools are amazing. You have ultimate freedom to create your articles any way you want them, the tools are easy to use and I've never, ever experienced a technical glitch.
- Embedded Links Allowed - You may insert up to two self-serving links within the body of your articles. This means you can place keyword-anchored back links to your other works instead of tacking them on at the end.
- Second Chance on Denied Articles - If you have an article denied, you can fix the problems and re-submit, so you don't have to lose all your hard work. I've had a few denied articles, before I was very familiar with the guidelines, for adding a link in the first paragraph of the article. In my experience, you'll rarely be denied if you can write in a way that makes sense and you follow the guidelines.
- Referral Program - Infobarrel also has a referral program, which allows you to earn a portion of revenue from your referral's content. You get 2 percent of all ad impressions generated by their articles. (NOTE: The links to Infobarrel in this article are my referral links. If you don't want to sign-up as my referral, please visit the site directly at Infobarrel.com).
Rights, Terms of Service and Other Tid-Bits
According to the Infobarrel Terms of Service, you shall continue to retain all authorship and copyrights to the Materials submitted for publication through the website. The site and any of its affiliates, however, maintains an irrevocable, perpetual, unlimited free of charge and exclusive right to publish the Original Content on the Site and/or on other Internet Sites. For more information on rights, visit the website and read the terms.
Another thing you may want to keep in mind is that although anyone can sign-up and submit content, your work will not be automatically pre-approved. This means that your articles must go through a routine editorial process to make sure they aren't offensive, don't contain too many links and that they actually make sense before publication. Don't let this frighten you, because the editors are not very strict. You don't have to be the world's best writer and as long as you have a strong command of the English language and you can follow the rules, you'll be fine.
The good news is that you can become pre-approved, once you've proven you understand the guidelines, and then your articles will go live on the site automatically. The standards for pre-approval include being a member for at least 14 days, submitting at least 10 articles and demonstrating a working knowledge of the English language. For more information, read the Infobarrel Preapproved Critera page.
I'd love to hear from other Infobarrel writers. Do you enjoy writing for the site? How does your revenue compare to other residual income opportunities?
9 comments:
Thank you for reviewing Infobarrel. I was accepted to DS after eHow switched over, but the copy write issue and finding resources don't appeal to me.
Specifically I'm glad you talked about the fact that you keep your copywrite on Infobarrel. That pretty much cinches it for me; I'm going to sign up and give them a try. I'm a little confused about their rights though. Does "irrevocable, perpetual, unlimited free of charge and exclusive right to publish the Original Content on the Site and/or on other Internet Sites" mean I wouldn't be able to delete things I've written there?
Thanks for this wonderful review on Infobarrel, Willow. I am currently trying some new things with my writing and if some of them don't pan out I will be sure to give Infobarrel a try. :)
I have only a few articles on Infobarrel but have found it to be a rather useful income stream for the amount of work I put in and it is definitely a site I should do more work on.
Yes you can delete articles, but you must write to the admin to ask them to do it for you. I deleted about 40 articles recently with no troubles.
Willow how do you make money on IB? I have had as many as 60 articles there and not seen much traffic or revenue. I moved the lion's share over to Suite. I love the ease of writing for IB and if I could figure out how to make some money I'd go back.
Thanks for the info on InfoBarrel; I'm definitely going to look into it. I hate the new Ehow.
I have been writing on IB since January and LOVE IT! Friendly, non-combative forums, administrators who do as you ask, and the freedom to write in different formats. I have 91 article up, as of now.
I backlink all of my article on Xomba and Shetoldme.
Give it a try!
Another site I use to promote ehow articles is Redgage. They also take photos and videos. I've run into many ehow writers there and I've been having a good experience so far. They pay a small amount per page view and I've also been awarded 2 feature bonuses since joining 2 weeks ago and have earned a total of $8.91. It's very fast and easy to post links and pics, but videos take a bit longer to upload. If you're ever suffering from writer's block just hop on redgage and post links to your existing content until you feel inspired again. If you sign up and would like to give me the referral just use "bestmommy" on the new account form. We don't earn anything from referrals content but you'll automatically become my "friend" and we could view each others content and I'll do my best to help with any questions you might have.
Hi, Willow,
Great article and it sounds like Infobarrel is a nice community.
However, if I didn't misunderstand the terms you related on copyright, I don't really understand what good it does an author to retain it, if Infobarrel "maintains an irrevocable, perpetual, unlimited free of charge and exclusive right to publish."
Presumably, exclusive also excludes the author, no?
Given that many members due to the ad support will have subject areas they concentrate on, there's nothing whatsoever to stop Infobarrel from stitching together an entire book from a single author's posts, without sharing any of the royalties.
I do realize the terms are no more exploitative than the terms at most other such sites.
However, as an old media refugee, accustomed to health insurance, reimbursed expenses, a 401k (all gone now, of course), I cannot help feeling sad for the younger writers coming up now.
Ten years ago, who would have believed so many people with ability from the so-called first world would be willing to toil for such wages.
When it comes to writers, clearly, there's no need to out-source.
Sorry for being such a downer. I really and truly wish all of you the greatest success.
Thanks so much for your site, it has been so helpful to me! I do upfront pay stuff, but find Infobarrell to be such a great site to post whatever content I feel like writing about. It gives my mind a break from the humdrum routine of Demand and wiseGEEK. For freelancers looking to earn residual income over time, I cannot recommend this site enough.
Post a Comment