In light of this week’s announcement that Yahoo is buying Associated Content, today’s Best of WordCount edition is a collection of posts I’ve done over the past year on content aggregators and hyperlocal news ventures:

On content aggregators:

• What Yahoo’s deal for Associated Content means for writers
• Suite101 CEO Peter Berger and a question of quality
• The great rate debate continues
• The race to the bottom
• WordCount Q&A: Helium CEO Mark Ranalli
• Writer games Examiner.com to make point about writing for content aggregators
• Counterpoint: Yes, freelancers should write for Helium
• Freelancers, don’t write for content aggregators

On hyperlocal news:

• AOL’s news initiative – freelance friend or foe?
• A guide to hyperlocal news
• Novice freelancers, instead of Helium, try hyperlocal

What does the deal mean for the lowly writers producing all that content Yahoo found so attractive? We’ll get to that. First some background.

With AOL investing in Seed and Patch, Demand Studios reportedly contemplating an initial public stock offering and Google and Facebook aiming for world news domination, the acquisition is Yahoo’s attempt to put a stake in the ground in the local news and content aggregator business.

Yahoo’s has been on a hiring spree lately, snapping up experienced newspaper editors and reporters to build up its news division. Last November, Yahoo hired Dallas Morning News new media strategy chief Anthony Moor to head its local news effort, which should have been a sign the company had bigger plans in store.

Yahoo’s stepping into territory that’s seen a flurry of activity from national networks like Seed and Patch and Examiner.com to smaller, home-grown hyperlocal news ventures.

According to a Yahoo press release on the deal, Yahoo will use Associated Content material for the kind of local news its in-house staff doesn’t produce. And according to an Associated Press report on the deal, once the acquisition’s done, the Associated Content website will go away and Yahoo will fold content produced by the aggregator’s freelance contributors into its own news offering.

That’s putting a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of Associated Content contributors, which the company says numbers 380,000. Sidetrack: 380,000 contributors, really? That’s the number both companies quoted in their press releases. But I can’t help but think that’s the total number of people who’ve ever written for the site; it’d be interesting to find out how many of those write for the site on a regular basis; I’d wager it’s a much smaller number.

In the immediate wake of the announcement, freelance writers weren’t sure what to make of the news.

No doubt web content writers who work for Associated Content are pleased. In an FAQ on the deal Associated Content put on its site immediate after the announcement, the company said writers would be able to contribute to a number of Yahoo-run media properties. Curiously, when I went to double check the the FAQ today the wording of that part of the release had been changed to be sightly vaguer, saying only: “With Yahoo!’s wind beneath Associated Content’s wings, contributors can expect new assignments, new ways to profit form their content and improved marketing tools.” One thing’s clear, come Q3 when the deal’s expected to close, contributors’ paychecks will be coming from a much bigger bank account.

Immediately after the deal was announced, writers turned to Twitter and private message boards to express their sentiments. “I hope this results in something better rather than something worse,” one posted on a freelance message board.

Others were more skeptical. “Unless they plan to pay a living wage, I think the (Associated Content) purchase is a bad step,” said New York writer Devon Ellington.

What my take on the deal? A couple thoughts:

• If Associated Content is hooking up with Yahoo it could be a sign the company needed deeper pockets than what were available to it as a stand-alone entity to continue building out its business plan.
• The deal’s about advertising pure and simple. Local content gives Yahoo access to local advertising that would otherwise go to those hyperlocal news ventures that have been cropping up everywhere.
• If Associated Content was attractive enough for Yahoo to spend $100 million on, you can be sure other content sites are taking notice. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Helium or HubSpot shopping for their own sugar daddies in the not too distant future.
• Acquistions make people rich. Unfortunately it’s never writers. Lawyers, advisors, matchmakers, venture capital investors – they’ll all get handsome cuts of this deal. If they’re lucky, Associated Contents writers may end up getting a few dollars more per article due to the big bump in traffic that will happen when their work starts showing up on a combined Yahoo-AC site, which the companies say will average 600 million unique visitors a month.

What about you – what’s your take on Yahoo’s deal to buy Associated Content? Do you write for either one? If you do, are you expecting significant changes?

It was the year conferences went digital, Twitter went viral and the bad economy made every writer a business reporter.

It was the year phrases like hyperlocal, meetup and content aggregators entered freelancers’ lexicon.

It was the year of the mobile app, the multimedia story, SEO tags and crowdsourcing.

It’s only fitting that as we say goodbye to 2009, and with it the first decade of the 21st century, we also bid farewell to journalism practices of yesterday and embraces those of the future as the media business leaves print behind (more or less) for an online-only world and all the changes, risks and opportunities that come with it.

With that in mind, here are my picks for the top media trends of last year, and what they mean for independent writers in 2010:

Content aggregators – They’ve been called mills, farms, and in one case even demonic. I’ll stick with the more neutral-sounding content aggregators to describe sites such as Demand Studios, Associated Content, Helium, and possibly AOL’s new Seed.com. All those sites are hiring freelancers to churn out thousands of SEO-enabled how-to pieces and other “articles” a day in hopes the information will show up high in Google search rankings thereby maximizing the proprietors’ online advertising earnings. The debate over the opportunity these sites present for freelance writers has raged on here and on other freelance blogs for the better part of the year, and media industry heavyweights have weighing in with their (mostly) negative opinions.
Takeaway for freelancers: Content aggregators are here to stay, at least for the short term – although recent changes Google’s made to its search algorithm could affect them in the long run. Also here to stay are a contingent of writers happy for the query-free gigs these sites offer, even if the rates they pay are pitifully low when calculated on a piece-by-piece basis. I remain unconvinced of the merit of doing this type of work, though understand its attraction to someone breaking into the freelance business or with limited time or desire to pitch stories.

Hyperlocal – From the everything-old-is-new-again department. Never have so many been so interested in what’s happening in your Zip Code, your voting precinct, your city block or rural postal route. They are to the news business what nanotechnology is to the tech industry. From biggies like MSNBC, AOL and Examiner.com’s billionaire owner Philip Anschutz to tiny startups, hyperlocal is everywhere. According to Knight Citizen News Network, journalists and hobbyists have started more than 800 hyperlocal sites to date. But will they last? Some are already shutting down. The cofounders of one ambitious southern California hyperlocal project – both long-time journalists – opted to shutter their site at the end of 2009 despite accolades, ads and a partnership with their area’s major metro daily. Why? They couldn’t scale the business to make it profitable without taking on more employees – and the cost that comes with them – a step they were unwilling to take.
Takeaway for freelancers: Hyperlocal remains a viable alternative to working for content aggregators. But like aggregators they don’t pay much. Treat it like the experiment it is. Include work for hyperlocal sites in a broader assignment mix so if a venture goes under you’re not stuck. Or if you go on staff, treat it like a stint at a community newspaper – which is basically what it is – and gauge how long you’re willing to stay for the experience and clips you’ll gain. If you’re interested in starting one of these on your own, you can apply for one of 9 grants of $25,000 each that American University’s J-Lab is awarding for community news sites this year. Applications are due March 1.l

Nonprofit news – This year, everybody who wasn’t busy creating a hyperlocal news site was putting together a 501c3 to start a nonprofit news venture (actually, some were one and the same). According to popular thinking, if nobody’s making money from advertising anymore, why bother, just start out as a nonprofit and hunt for financing through grants, corporate sponsorships, subscriptions and donations. So far it’s working for sites such as MinnPost, Voice of San Diego and ProPublica, which have raised hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars respectively. The bigger question: whether it’s a model that dozens, or hundreds of other ventures can successfully duplicate, similar to the country’s public radio stations. As a matter of fact, don’t rule out the country’s public radio stations as a source of nonprofit news innovation, as stations such as Oregon Public Broadcasting are busy working to expand their coverage areas and the news they dish up on their websites.
Takeaway for freelancers: Nonprofits aren’t the backwater they used to be, especially if an organization is savvy or lucky enough to get backed by Knight Digital Media or another source of major grant funding. Most of these enterprises are being started by ex-newspaper or magazine journalists – meaning if you write for them you’re more likely to get high-quality editing, always good for the clips file.

User generated content – Where to begin. User-generated content is old news if you think of it in terms of YouTube and Facebook. But it’s catching on in new ways. For example, in a different type of user-generated content, more companies are choosing to bypass newspapers and magazines and instead of advertising, starting custom publications, especially online. Expect these types of projects to flourish in 2010 (Disclaimer: I started working on one of them not long ago). Is it journalism? Yes, and no. Sponsored content is after all, sponsored content. But some sponsors understand that for their publications to be taken seriously they have to present information that’s reported and presented like the real deal. The more well-known user-generated content trend is of course the reader comments, videos, etc., that more publications are building into what they do. Expect to see newspapers, magazines and websites do even more of this in 2010.
Takeaway for freelancers: If you don’t already do work for custom publications, now’s the time to look into it. Don’t think you have to pitch publishers of custom publications for the work. If you’ve written for corporate clients in the past, why not pitch them on a news site, or even an e-newsletter. Another options: introducing yourself to one of the growing crop of digital media agencies that produce online-only custom publications. As for the other kind of user-generated content – any writer running a blog or specialized social network has to think about ways to maximize reader involvement.

Entrepreneurship - With so many journalists getting laid off, it was inevitable some would go into business for themselves. Unlike long-time solo writers – such as yours truly – these reporters and editors don’t want to identify themselves as “freelancers,” a word that for better or worse still connotes a lower status word worker in some circles. Besides, some portion of these newly unleashed writers are opting to steer their own destinies rather than wait for editors to answer their queries, so calling them entrepreneurial journalists fits. What are these EJs doing? Creating news apps for iPhones and Androids. Working on the hyperlocal and nonprofit news ventures above. Creating technology platforms or providing the training journalists or newspapers need to their jobs better in the future.
The takeaway for freelancers: There’s never been a better time to start something on your own. The tools are abundant and free or close to it.  In cities such as Portland and New York, it’s relatively easy to find coworking spaces dedicated to writers or start ups or both. There’s also a wealth of information online and

Twitter - At the start of the year Twitter was still Facebook’s little brother, a circus sideshow fun for goofing off on but not really anything you could use for business. At least that was the perception. But as the year wore on and more publications and writers opened accounts, it became apparent Twitter could be used not just to research stories but tell them too. Dan Baum drove this point home when he took to Twitter to tell his tale of being fired from The New Yorker. If that wasn’t enough, there was always coverage of the plane landing in the Hudson, the Iranian election protests and Michael Jackson’s death to convince you Twitter had arrived as a news source.
Takeaway for freelancers: If you haven’t hopped on Twitter yet, now’s the time. Don’t worry about how you’ll use it, at least not at first. Give yourself some time to play around with it and see how things work. Then come up with a plan that fits into your writing business. You read more of my advice on how writers can use Twitter on this blog post and this one.

Other trends: the wave of online-only startup publications on all matter of subjects will increase; blogging will remain big; more publications and writers will experiment with mobile apps; and writers will see publications’ freelance budgets increase, though not all will return to pre-2008 levels.

Got your own picks for the major media industry trends of the past year?

You’ll have to subscribe to the paper in print or online or borrow a copy from a friend to see AOL to Produce News, Video by the Numbers in its entirety. But here are some of the relevant details:

• AOL will rely on a new digital newsroom system that uses computer algorithms to predict what types of stories, videos or photos will be popular, then assign articles accordingly.
• Here’s where freelancers come in. Stories will be assigned to freelancers via a new Web site called Seed.com. According to the story, AOL already works with a network of 3,000 freelancers but is looking to increase that number through Seed.com, “which is open to anyone looking to submit a story.” In other words, not necessarily professional writers. Note: The Seed.com website isn’t much to look at just yet, but they will take your email address and promise to get back to you after they launch, if you’re so inclined.
• Under the new system, AOL’s freelance fees will range from nothing up front and a share of ad revenue to more than $100 per story.
• According to the WSJ story, AOL will offer advertisers “the chance to work with its editorial team to create custom content.” In other words custom publishing. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s not exactly journalism, and hopefully won’t be labeled as such.

The WSJ story used the recent baby crib recall as an example of how AOL’s new system would work. If the new system had been up and running, according to the article, the company’s number-crunching wizardry would have determined that people were interested in seeing more stories on the subject, which would have prompted editors to assign more stories.

To which I can only say: no duh. Any editor worth their salt would have come to the same conclusion, and wouldn’t have needed a lot of computer algorithms to do it.

All this is being directed by Tim Armstrong, the former Google advertising exec who’s slated to take over as AOL’s CEO when Time Warner completes spinning off the Internet company in December.

Some of my freelance friends are already up in arms over the whole situation. They’re ready to put AOL into the same group as Demand Studios, Associated Content, Helium, Studio101 and other sites that I’ve called content aggregators but other freelancers have dubbed content mills for the paltry amounts they pay, whether to professional writers or hobbyists, to churn out how-tos and other articles based on topics that are more prized for how high they’ll turn up in keyword searches than for their reportage.

But other freelancers I know who work on AOL’s blogs and other news enterprises have nothing but good things to say about the working conditions, including friendly editors and decent money.

For now, it remains to be seen whether AOL’s new endeavor will turn out to be a legitimate new market for freelance work, or give new meaning to the term bad seed.

Whatever happens, it’s also worth noting that AOL is the latest in a string of companies that most people would identify as technology ventures getting into the media business, a growing list that includes Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. As newspapers continue to struggle, are these tech giants the real future of the news?

By writing for content aggregators, proponents argue, writers can bypass the often lengthy query process – sending pitches, waiting for answers, and dealing with rejections. Instead of plowing their time and brain power into queries and other marketing endeavors, they can immediately direct all their energies toward paying work.

But settling for easy money is a mistake.

Freelancing isn’t about writing. It’s about sales.

To be good at freelance writing, you have to be good at sales.

You have to be able to sell a concept. You have to be able to sell how a concept fits a particular audience. And you have to be able to sell yourself as the best person to do the work.

By bypassing the sales process, you shortchange yourself from the very beginning by accepting work that’s easy to get – and carries a low rate as a result.

If you’ve ever written about business, you may know about sales cycles. Some products have short sales cycles. Consumables like food or fashion have short sales cycles. A farmer picks apples, sells them to the wholesaler, grocer or farmer’s market and people buy them. Other products have incredibly long sales cycles. Pharmaceutical reps may call on a doctor’s office for months before getting them to agree to recommend a certain type of prescription medication to their patients. Boeing may spend years – years – courting a major airline or a country before convincing them to buy a fleet of multi-million dollar airliners.

Sales cycles for freelancing articles for print or online publications – not including content aggregators – fall somewhere in the middle. It’s not often you email a pitch to an editor and hear back the same day – it may happen if you write breaking news or work as a contributing editor for a publication on a regular basis. But if you’re pitching cold – the equivalent of a sales rep cold calling prospective accounts – it’s pretty rare to hear back right away. Sales cycles for freelance pieces could be weeks, maybe even months, and include multiple rounds of email conversations with potential clients. As I noted here recently, not long ago I heard from an editor I’d sent a letter of introduction 18 months before. I ended up doing a big project for her and more work could be ahead.

Another reason freelancers avoid selling: they can’t handle rejection, or they’d rather not deal with it. Nobody likes hearing “no.” But in sales, rejection is par for the course.

So freelance sales cycles can be long and the outcome isn’t guaranteed. Is that a reason to chuck it all and grab low-paying work, simply because it’s the path of least resistance? For some that answer is yes. For others, the rewards of higher paid work outweigh the risk of waiting out a long sales cycle, and the risk of getting a “no” instead of a “yes.”

Good salespeople know, the key to limiting your risk is doing adequate due diligence on potential clients ahead of time to understand the needs they might have that you could fill, all the better to target your “sales” pitch – that also includes researching which markets aren’t buying right now, so you don’t end up bumping your head against a wall of rejection. Also important: having enough proposals in the pipeline so the deals you land are enough to keep you busy working at the income goals that you’ve set, and continuously prospecting new markets.

Next time you’re getting ready to go after new work, don’t think of yourself as a writer. Think of yourself as a salesperson, and writing is the product you’re selling.

Some novice freelancers see writing for Demand Studios, Examiner.com, Helium and other content aggregators as a legitimate way into the business. They’re willing to put up with working conditions that make more experienced writers cringe: fees of $10 to $20 or less per article that necessitate cranking out dozens, even hundreds, of pieces a month to make a decent living.

The site’s defenders counter that most contributors write only part-time, and don’t depend on it for their livelihood. They also argue it’s a great way to get a foot in the door and get writing work without going through the hassles and rejections of querying higher paying publications.

Detractors have questioned whether anybody can research and write a “story” in the amount of time it would take to produce enough copy to make much money. They also worry that writers for these sites are merely rewriting other people’s work. This snippet from an honest-to-goodness ad that appeared recently in Craigslist‘s Portland listings appears to prove their point (emphasis is mine):

Here’s the job:

1 – I send you a link to an article.
2 – You read the article.
3 – Then you rewrite/summarize the article, adding a few sentences that are specific to our business. In general, I will expect to get your writing back within 24 hours of my sending the article. If it doesn’t happen every time, that’s fine. You get to go on vacation once in a while! But the general expectation is speed.
4 – I edit the article and send you the finished version.
5 – You look at it, think about what I’ve changed, and what you could do differently next time to get it more like I want it.
6 – Repeat
7 – Once a month, I mail you a check. You get $3 for one sort of blog post (3-4 formulaic paragraphs) and $5 for another type (longer, more thoughtful, or a press release). It’s $3 unless I say otherwise.

I’ve called it the race to the bottom, and maintain there are better ways to break into the freelance business, and better business models for building a successful freelance writing career.

But why take my word for it? Here are examples of a few other blogs where this debate is taking place. Visit, read and come back here to comment.

• 10 reasons why old school freelance writers (including me) need to lighten up and stop whining - One of several posts Freelance Writing Jobs’ Deb Ng has written on the topic since announcing a partnership between her popular freelance blog and Demand Studios.
• Writer mills making big $: Demand Studios – Freelance business writer Erik Sherman represents an opposing viewpoint: caution, some language in this post is NSFW.
• Yolander, won’t you please shut up about the content mills? – Freelancewriterville blogger Yolander Prinzel’s account of writing for content aggregators, why she doesn’t anymore and why she doesn’t think anyone else should either.
• Was I wrong about Helium? – Tim Beyers, aka The Social Writer, explains how he made more selling reprints of a story he originally published on Helium than what he earned on the site.
• Writer mills: you can do better – Long-time freeleancer Jesaka Long riffs on posts from Sherman and others. Her conclusion: “…writers should stand for what they are worth every day. No exception.”
• Are content aggregators a freelancer’s friend or foe? A novice freelancer tries to figure it out for herself.
• I did it again – freelance writing and the great rate debate – Carson Brackney’s faced off with Deb Ng over this issue before, and apparently reading my earlier post caused him to weigh in again. BTW, thanks to Carson for the inspiration for the title of this blog post.

Do you write for content aggregators sites? Has it helped your career? How much money do you make at it? Do you include those clips in your portfolio when going for higher-paying work?

Freelancers are up in arms that Deb Ng, owner of the widely-read Freelance Writing Jobs blog, cut a deal with Demand Studios, whose parent company has raised $355 million in venture capital financing for a variety of web-based enterprises, yet pays independent contractors $15 to $30 per article they write and $3.50 per story they edit. Why, critics argue, should any self-respecting professional freelancer used to getting 50 cents or $1 a word or more settle for such a small amount.

My answer: they shouldn’t. In fact, I don’t really see what all the fuss is about.

It’s not as if Demand Studios and content aggregators like it – Helium, Associated Content, Studio101, etc. – are the only places hiring and paying writers. It’s true newspapers aren’t the reliable freelance markets they once were. And yes, it does feel like magazines have folded up their tents and slunk away, at least where freelance contributions are concerned.

But there are still plenty of places to write for that pay far more than what Demand and sites like it are offering.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been approached by no less than three editors for print and online-only publications asking pitches and all of them pay far more than the going rate at content aggregators. On top of that, I’m talking to several publications about projects that could result in interesting new work, some of it ongoing.

I’m not the only one. I’m starting to read similar accounts of an uptick in  work that’s out there from freelancers who hang out on the writers’ message boards I do.

Content aggregators like Demand Studios represent the lowest rung of freelance opportunity. It doesn’t take a lot of journalism training, writing experience or time to put together the kind of evergreen how-to articles these types of sites thrive on, which is one reason why the pay’s so low. Another has to do with supply and demand. When there’s a large supply of writers, professional or otherwise, willing and able to do the work, sites like Demand Studios don’t have to offer higher rates to attract the labor they need.

The kinds of opportunities Demand Studios represents have always existed. In pre-Internet days, they were the writing jobs listed in the classified ads. Those jobs are more high profile now because the Internet’s created more of them, but also because Craigslist, blogs and job boards like Freelance Writing Jobs have made it easier for companies to market them.

The biggest difference between writing for content aggregators like Demand Studios and its ilk and writing for traditional publishers – whether they’re newspapers, magazines or websites – is the amount of work a writer has to invest in the process. For one, you scan a job board like Freelance Writing Jobs to find out what’s posted – like looking through the classifieds for a job opening. See something you like, fill out a form – or in some cases go through a training period – and voila, you’re ready to start.

Getting those other writing jobs takes a lot more thought, training and work. They’re the equivalent of the high-level jobs companies never list in the help wanted ads. You have to come up with an original idea for a story, find a market, craft a pitch that explains what the story is, why it’s a good fit for the market and why you’re the best writer to do it. If you land the assignment, there’s research and reporting to do before you even start writing.

That process takes a lot more work than answering an ad. It only follows that the compensation should be commensurate to the amount of work.

So, do you focus on the lowest-common denominator freelance gigs that are easier to come by and easier to write but pay less and have a heck of a lot more competition vying for the opportunity? Or do you aim higher, going for the tougher assignments that are harder to land, harder to complete but pay more too?

Ultimately, it an individual freelancer’s decision to make. But I see no reason to compete in a race to the bottom when you can aim higher and get a lot more out of your efforts.

One of a new breed of online publishers that some call content aggregators and others content mills, Helium.com has over a short time amassed 150,000 contributors – though according to published reports, only about 10,000 of those are regulars – 1 million articles and $17 million in venture capital funding. The Andover, Massachusetts, company has also signed content sharing deals with three community newspaper chains that pay its writers for original work and reprint rights. But the bulk of Helium writers earn money from click-through advertising according to a computer-based algorithm that takes into account reader interest in the subject matter and how highly articles are rated by other Helium writers, among other things. The company claims its writers had collectively earned more than $1 million by last May.

I recently interviewed Ranalli, Helium’s president and CEO, for a story on content aggregators for an upcoming issue of a national writers’ magazine (I’ll share the link when the story’s out this fall). Here’s what he had to say about the site’s publishing model, how writers make money on it and where he sees the publishing industry headed. I’ve edited our interview for length and clarity.

I call Helium a content aggregator for lack of a better term. What do you call it?
The industry hasn’t accepted a term. We think of Helium as a writing platform. The difference between how we view what we’re doing and how some professional writers view us is a mindset shift. Professional writers are used to looking for work from a publisher then getting paid for their work. We’re allowing the writer to go direct to the consumer. We help them monetize their work and collectively build something of value to all of them.

How does Helium work?
We have two core offerings. One is a publishing platform where anyone can write, improve their skills, build their digital persona and build relationships among other writers. Our members bring the content and operate as the editorial staff. They produce and evaluate the content and the best writers and articles are compensated. It’s a platform more like eBay than it is anything writers have seen before.

And the second way you’re making money?
That’s our marketplace, where the relationship is more like the traditional freelance model. Now that we have this huge writing community, we’ve been approached by thousands of publishers and they ask our writers to produce content for them based on their needs. If one wants a 500-word article on fly fishing destinations in Montana, they give us the specs and we’ve set up a marketplace where our writers can identify what assignments are available, and if they’re selected to do it they’re paid. Some publishers pay $300 an article. Some pay as little as $40 or $50.

Who are your publishing partners – Hearst is one, right?
Hearst uses us a couple ways. Content that exists on Helium.com is also available to our publishers as stock content. Many newspapers have advertorials and sections that don’t require unique, custom-written content. For instance, a local newspaper on Connecticut might be looking for an article on day hikes. We have a gallery of 1 million articles on Helium.com and one of them might be on that topic. Compensation depends. It could be $10 or $15 for one-time use of that article. The writer gets a byline and they retain the copyright so they can resell it again. It’s like a reprint fee. Today we’re working with 6 Hearst newspapers in Connecticut. That’s initially. The expectation is to roll out to other papers.

What types of stories do your publishing partners buy?
We’re not hard news, we’re features. Breaking news journalism, front page stuff is a very different kind of content creation and serves a different model than the travel section. Lead times are different. As a newspaper, you don’t need to have a full time staff writer to write the travel section. We’re not causing this, we’re providing a solution for it.

What other publishers are you working with?
We have a relationship with Community Newspaper Holdings and GateHouse Media. We’re working with some of the world’s largest most respective publishers, but the vast majority of Helium’s partners remain anonymous. If you were a consumer magazine, you wouldn’t necessarily want to signal what’s going to show up in next month’s magazine by (announcing a partnership with Helium). We’re also working with hundreds of long-tail publishers.

What types of people are Helium contributors?
Our members range from professionals in their fields to retirees who spent 35 years in marketing and now write about marketing. They’re J-schools students who are looking to build portfolios. They’re Harvard educated mothers of three. I think of it as a pro-am. It includes some hobbyists but also some professionals. A reason for professionals to write here is we’re a credible brand for allowing writers to build a digital persona. Just because you start a blog doesn’t mean anybody reads it. Helium promotes your content, we help with monetization, we pay you based on the value of that content. It’s a system.

So writing for Helium is an alternative to having a blog?
I liken blogging to screaming in the woods. Sixty-five percent of them are never read. People are out there trying to make it with a blog and not even their mothers are reading their stuff. Blogging is a wonderful concept. It’s indicative of the power of the Internet to go direct to the consumer, share your thoughts and not be forced to go through a filter. But filters are valuable. The editor of the New York Times is a great filter. Helium acts as a filter that allows everyone to participate. The writers become a collective rating system that filters for quality. Publishing a lot of bad content doesn’t do anyone any good. There are other things we do. Being cognizant of SEO, we make sure Helium is linked around the web. And we’re selling ads and generating revenue.

How much do Helium writers make?
In 2007 our top writer made $500 and in 2008 it was $5,000. That’s not pay-the-mortgage money. People aren’t spending 40 hours a week on Helium. But $5,000 is better than a stick in the eye. This year our top writer will be on track for close to $10,000. We have writers on the site who’ve done 25 articles and made hundreds of dollars. I’m sure there are people who’ve written 100 articles made nothing. The devil’s in the details. Anyone who invests their energy in Helium will have a good outcome. I don’t believe you could work 40 hours a week on Helium and replace a full-time salary. But the effort of the community is making Helium a better platform and that’s creating opportunity. This is a rising tide that lifts all boats.

Exactly how do Helium writers get paid?
It’s an algorithm based on a daily calculation of what content has been created and how your content is rated. Well-rated content earns more than poorly-rated content. The second part of the algorithm is the value of your content to advertisers. The third part is general interest in the subject matter. For example, we know personal finance as a section gets a lot of readers. It’s a recession, people want information on how to save money and invest. So we look at, can you monetize the general area of content, do people read it, and are you a good writer. Those factors go into how much you’re earning every day. We’ve been more sophisticated than just who clicked on an ad, which could cause click fraud and introduced other funny dynamics.

What’s your affiliation with the Society of Professional Journalists and National Press Club?
Today not all writing happens through the Washington Post or Time magazine. But these professional organizations didn’t know how to evaluate (unaffiliated) writers. Helium’s system sorts out who the good writers are, and we’d love to have the good ones apply for membership. So if you’re a starred writer on Helium, you can apply to the SPJ. Same with the National Press Club.

Who’s your competition: Associated Content? HubPages?
I view HubPages as more of a micropublisher. They build a system that’s every man for himself. You build your page, create it for SEO and it’s all about click throughs. Squidoo has that same model: lots of people, almost a blog aggregator. I don’t view them as competition. We’re more of a publisher or information resource.

At what stage of their life cycles are content aggregators?
They’re all toddlers. If you think about it, the entire web publishing model is in its infancy. About.com is one of the oldest, they’re 12 years old, now part of the New York Times. These businesses are an opportunity for writers. If you look at the percent of revenue a traditional publisher pays writers it’s typically 5 percent. Helium will be sharing a far greater percentage of revenue generated on the platform. If you believe these businesses will achieve the kind of scale of a professional publisher, the opportunity is there for writers to make a lot of money. But you gotta get here.

You should, because your readers are.

If you’re like me, you probably spend more time thinking about whatever it is you’re working on today or have to start next week. But there’s value in looking in the opposite direction.

This hit home this week when someone who jumped into the ongoing debate over writing for content aggregators like Helium and Examiner.com that’s going on here mentioned The Long Tail.

I listened to the audiobook version of Chris Andersons’ groundbreaking work on the economic theory of the Internet last year. What struck me most was how much it applied to blogging.

I definitely see a Long Tail phenomenon on this blog. The stats charts for most of my posts have that distinctive Long Tail look: the bulk of the page views come right when it first comes out, followed by a long line of increasing smaller page views stretching out over subsequent weeks and months.

But I didn’t realize how significant it was until I crunched a few numbers. Get this: in the past week, visitors here have read 181 posts, not including my resume, clips or About WordCount page. What’s that mean? In a seven-day span, people read more than half of what I’ve written since starting this blog in December 2007. Definitely a Long Tail phenomenon.

What’s the take away? It pays to look back. If you do, you might discover:

• Which older posts get the most page views. It could be a sign to write about that topic more often.
• Which posts get a consistent amount of traffic. You might consider packaging a few into an e-book to offer as a free bonus for people who sign up for your RSS feed.
• That you’ve written about something often enough, you have enough material to turn into a book, online course, or at lease material for a speaking engagements on the topic.
• That you’ve got enough material on a topic to turn into pitches for assignments for a magazine or website.
• That you’ve got enough material on a topic to spin off a second blog.

Have you noticed the Long Tail effect on your own blog?

So she gamed the system.

Williamson, a Los Angeles freelancer with clips from big name publications like the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly and Sunset magazine, wrote a series of Examiner.com pieces that she admits included exaggerations and half-truths, like this one about the dangers of playing tag. She explains the whole thing in an email she sent to Fishbowl LA, the Mediabistro blog on the Los Angeles media business.

Nothing happened. No phone calls from fact checkers. No emails from editors questioning her sources. Nothing, that is, until Williamson went a little too far and wrote an autism-related story about Jenny McCarthy the actress and alternative treatment advocate noticed and had her lawyers follow up.

In no time, Examiner pulled the stories and fired Williamson, although she argues since she hadn’t gotten a dime from the site it wasn’t really getting fired.

Williamson says she wrote the stories as an experiment to call out the shortcomings of content aggregators, Examiner.com in particular. In a comment on the Fishbowl LA story, Examiner.com’s editorial director Travis Henry says the site has a growing editorial staff that works with writers, providing them with coaching and daily training sessions.

Here at WordCount, there’s been a similar exchange of opinions on the value of writing for content aggregators recently. In a post and multiple follow up comments, a Helium representative explained the site’s editorial process and how much money writers can make. Several freelancers countered her with arguments explaining why they won’t write for content aggregators or why they did and wouldn’t again. I even chimed in with my own advice to write for a hyperlocal news site instead.

While newspapers and magazines figure out how to transform themselves into fiscally sound Internet businesses, the pay-per-click business model that content aggregators – my friend and fellow freelancer Heather Boerner calls them content aggravators -  use to compensate writerscitizen journalists isn’t going away. Whether it will become the predominant online publishing business model in the future is hard to say. But it’s safe to assume the arguments over the merits of working for content aggregators will continue.