Would like to attract solid article contributions

Successful approaches or new ideas?

[john_k]

I would like to provide incentive for article contributions on two of my sites. So now I am looking for ideas on the best types of incentives. Obviously money is a great motivator. Surprise - I am not in a position to pay large sums or even pay a standard commission to free-lancers.

One idea I am considering is a percentage of advertising revenue based on article views. What types of compensation have others offered? What types of non-monetary compensation (other than author recognition) would work?

Any ideas on how to attract repeat contributors?

I greatly appreciate any and all ideas on this topic.

[trillianjedi]

The only model I've seen really work in practice is the community website.

TJ

[edited by: trillianjedi at 2:44 pm (utc) on Mar. 12, 2004]

[buckworks]

A spider-friendly author credit link would be an effective inducement for some folks, especially as your site's PR grows stronger. Author recognition without that will probably not motivate anyone.

[rogerd]

Unless you can pay real money for articles, I'd recommend not using monetary compensation and instead doing other stuff the author will appreciate. Many authors are motivated by non-monetary considerations (e.g., desire to be recognized as an expert, wish to help others, promotion of their name/website, etc.). Here are a few ideas:

For SEO-aware authors:
- clean link with author's preferred link text
- short navigation path to article page
- clean article URL
- with multiple articles, a link from a major category or home page.

For ALL authors
- prominent link to author's site
- author bio & pic (very short bio written by author, you can edit out wildly hyperbolic claims)
- "Read More" button that goes to author's site
- Site or logo merchandise (mug, $5; T-shirt, $10; golf/dress shirt, $30; your name in print, priceless)
- Other promotion for author (Amazon links to author's book, banner ads elsewhere on site linking to author's site, etc.)

[john_k]

Thanks everyone for the help!

I will probably utilize ALL of your suggestions rogerd. I finished a site for a promotional products company two years ago, so the merchandising thing is always on my mind. I really like the idea for the author's bio.

One question for you - What do you mean by "clean article URL?"

[Never_again]

rogerd has hit it right on the head. We have used this approach for year with great success. One other comment: Do be afraid to turn down articles that are not well written, don't meet your precise need, or are overly heavy on attempting to sell their product or service instead of providing useful information.

You should also be prepared to help the author improve the article -- be a good editor. I often rewrite sections and then kick them back for approval. Most authors are really glad for the help.

[rogerd]

John_k, to facilitate spidering and indexing I'm sure most authors (who are web-savvy) would prefer a simple URL for the article with no query strings. E.g.,

Good: www.example.com/info/widgets.html
Bad: www.example.com/info/2004/widgets/articles/story.php?category=widget-stories&storyid=2345&display=yes

Dynamic pages are no longer the problem they used to be, but both reality and webmaster perception still favor a nice, short, clean URL.

[hannamyluv]

Author recognition without that will probably not motivate anyone

It depends on the subject. If you are looking for a general sort of content, I bet if you posted a few flyers near places where writing workshops are given (Community centers and coillege English departments), you would get quite a few articles. Having been a former aspiring writer, I know that many of them are looking for a places they can use as credit (I have been published here, here and here). They aren't looking for any more compensation than to be able to say they were published (as many of the higher end magazines and whatnot won't even look at your stuff unless you can prove publication elsewhere)

[Harry]

The best solution I've found is to attract people by giving them an example. If you produce lots of contents, they attracting writers is easier, as they see an established body of work and understand that the tough part has been done.

Of course that means you have to start somewhere.