I do think $15 is an ok price based on the responses I get to my ads alone. Nobody asks for more and I get a lot of responses. The work so far has been packed with good info but I’ve needed to edit it a lot in some cases. But that’s ok since I had expected that and even told the writers that.

I will keep you all updated on what I decide to do and any variations I make from paying for content up front. For now I think Ill concentrate on finishing up my Sydney and Beijing sites and then start on Buenos Aires since I’m heading there in a couple months to live.

I’ve just started blogging at a new network (see link ) They pay $1 for 100 word post plus a traffic bonus. Most writers seem to be there for the money LOL – for me its worth it – but only for as long as the backlinks are do follow.
From what I see on the boards few writers understand the value of links or understand that a $1 / post is WAY more than most of their posts bring in on Adsense revenue – because of this lack of knowledge I think it would be a pain in the arse managing their Adsense codes.

Maybe pay a traffic bonus though: but then you’ d have to use statcounter or something for the stats…

I pay my travel writers a relatively small amount (US $10) up front for the article, then offer revenue sharing on the article for 6 months or 1 year. That way, I use my adsense code and own the content, but pay them 50% of that page’s earnings via PayPal.

The allure of doing this is that the writer has no earning limit, so it is appealing to them….plus it gives them motivation to help promote it themselves (ie…social bookmarking) because they have a stake in the traffic as well. In my opinion, its better to have them help promote rather than walk away with $30 in their pocket.

Best of luck,
Greg

I’ve lived in Reykjavik and Copenhagen so if youre doing those I’ll be glad to write up some info.

If you’re looking for a Dutch writer: I’m happy to produce articles. I’ve lived a large part of my life near Amsterdam and currently study in Utrecht and live quite near the city.

Just a note- Matador only bumped up to $30 about 2 months ago, before that they were doing $15.

If you’ve the dough, go with the paid article model. You can advertise it on Matador Bounty Board or on Craigslist easily enough. You won’t get the best of the best writers, but you’re not really looking for that. If you’re willing to spend a bit of time in editing, then you’re golden. After that you can do whatever you want with the articles (perhaps a living internationally e-book at some point?) without having to re-pay or give credit to anyone else.

I think yoiu are missing one big thing from your analysis with a small investment from yourself lets say $100 per month over 12 months each month during those 12 months you will earn a little more from the sites allready created, by month 13 the sites you created will probably be making you $100 so months 13 thru 24 will be self financing Month 25 will see you with a net of $200 a month or you could continue reinvesting

The above is probably worst case scenario for myself I have found I can not even keep up with the writers @ $100 per month, this small monthly investment will give you as much content as you can manage.

I wouldn’t think outbound links would hurt you too much with google plus if you get some good regular contributors your now going to have a new outbound link with every new item.

Good luck with it.

@IP I should have pointed out that for these sites I am more interested in having someone who knows their stuff than having a professional writer. I actually don’t want a polished piece, I want something written in a chatty sort of way as though they were giving advice to a friend. The area guide I wrote myself took less than an hour to get the info down and then a bit more to polish and that’s what I tell other people too… that, if they know their stuff, it shouldn’t take long to write and I will be happy to edit it. I can’t afford to pay even that much so option one isn’t really practical for me anyways. The link juice reference is more about how Google feels about outbound links rather than be being afraid that the visitor will leave the site.

@Alan I wouldn’t be interested in rotating ads because I think it’s fair to give three permanent ads as payment. I can’t get Adsense revenue from other areas of the site as well as going for link sales and affiliate sales and stuff like that. I think that’s a neat suggestion to take advantage of having a following… it’ss funny to think about that!

@travbod The articles would have to be unique but that doesn’t mean I’d object if they submitted a similar article worded differently somewhere else. They’d be geared towards people heading to the city to live and work rather than tourists. So I wouldn’t care about recommendations on cool things to see but rather knowing about how to set up a bank account, get a cell phone and what it’s like living in some outlying suberb.

Hope this clarifies things… thanks for the comments!

Regarding option 1. I would check Elance for standard copywriting rates, I want to say it’s anywhere from 1-5 cents a word, depending on the type of writing and quality of work expected.

Option 2 seems much more attractive however, specially if you can project some type of earnings for the writer to look at beforehand. I understand that you’re worried about losing out on Adsense revenue as the site creator, but isn’t there some way to get around that? Is rotating codes too difficult?

Also, this only applies to the Internet-tuned crowd such as myself, but what about offering marketing incentives to the writer? A blog review, a link advertisement for a few weeks, etc. Your following is big enough at this point for you to take advantage of the publicity.

Hope this helps. Cheers, from Baku, Azerbaijan!

Alan

Other sites pay much more. You have to consider the time taken to write the article – it isn’t worth some people’s while for that kind of money. You will certainly get offers, but they will be filtered into the low-quality spectrum IMO. If someone is living in a major city in the world they are probably paying a lot for it, so $15 is chump change. Perhaps your approach will be more successful for those travelling through cheaper countries (but if they are travelling through, they may not have an expert enough opinion).

If you really are on that tight a budget, I’d focus more on encouraging people based on links to their site (and promising that your site will be high up in Google searches) and Adsense earnings (explaining how it works, since a lot of people may not understand). It’s not really losing juice a link is opening in a new window/tab. If people go to your site to find out about a city they’ll stay there until they have their info, but out of a side-curiosity find out more about the author if they like.

It’s a fantastic business idea, but considering your long term earnings from the article I think you will have to be more generous to your contributors Just my €0.02!